March/April 2004
— A girl watches her mysterious neighbor Rochelle for years before discovering she's created an elaborate kingdom from stones, each with names and personalities.
— A speaker accidentally rips a map and imagines the torn paper could magically bring her closer to a distant friend she misses.
— A girl recalls waking at 4:30 AM to climb Panther Mountain with her mother and grandparents, eating hard-boiled eggs while watching the sunrise from the summit.
— A boy bonds with his grandfather through fishing trips and flying lessons in the Red Comet plane, then inherits the aircraft after his grandfather's death from cancer.
— The Sight by David Clement-Davies; Dutton Books: New York, 2002; $21.99 When I sat down to read The Sight, I was expecting a predictable good-against-evil, weak-against-strong, love-against-hate type story. Boy,...
— A girl finds her perfect horse at a failing stable, but when her superstitious mother refuses, she creates an elaborate scheme involving a fake dream to change her mind.
— A morning forest walk becomes a meditation on interconnection as the speaker observes woodpeckers, geese, manzanita trees, and realizes 'I am the tree, soil and sun.'
— During the Pearl Harbor attack, a young Japanese-American woman searches desperately for her brother among the wreckage while confronting sudden hostility from her neighbors.
— Alia Waking by Laura Williams McCaffrey; Clarion Books: New York, 2003; $15 Your lifelong dream dangles before your eyes. You reach for it and almost grasp it, but alas, you...
— A Black doctor arrives in 1960s rural Pennsylvania to take over a practice, faces racist vandalism and rejection, then gains acceptance after rescuing a white child from a well.