March/April 2008
— A girl runs eleven miles to the beach without planning, where observing oysters making pearls from irritating sand grains helps her reframe her frustrations with home life.
— A stray cat with a bell that prevents her from hunting gradually learns to trust a grieving woman who feeds her, eventually becoming a beloved family pet.
— A child navigates a Cape Cod beach as high tide transforms the landscape, jumping ice-covered islands while observing the retreating wildlife and encroaching sea.
— A star basketball player tears her knee in the championship game, faces losing her scholarship dreams, then finds purpose coaching young players while beginning her recovery.
— Home, and Other Big Fat Lies by Jill Wolfson; Henry Holt and Company: New York, 2006; $16.95 This story begins when the great and mighty “Termite” gets sent to her...
— An elf boy searches for rare ashberries to save a dragonfire victim, remembering how the same berries failed to save his father years before.
— A morning routine transforms when a redwing blackbird's song stops time on the way to the bus stop, breaking the monotony with wonder.
— A girl struggles with her rebellious golden retriever until he falls through ice into a river, and she jumps in to save him, realizing she loves him as he is.
— An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi; Harcourt Children’s Books: New York, 2007; $17 Imagine a lonely white girl, raised in a wealthy and prestigious family, who lived her dream of...
— A young man becomes a rodeo bullfighter on the anniversary of his best friend's death, facing the same bull that killed him a year earlier.