March/April 2009
— An 11-year-old recalls visiting her mother's cousin Marie on an Irish farm, witnessing her sudden illness, and learning of her death two weeks later on St. Patrick's Day.
— A lonely girl who plays harp privately joins a youth symphony at her mother's urging and meets a potential friend who offers to help her.
— Two sisters who once shared an imaginary world called the Blueberry Family drift apart after moving to Connecticut, until a forgotten lunch brings understanding.
— A young surfer catches their first wave in Maui, experiencing the exhilaration of success after being tumbled by the ocean.
— A Maine family transforms their seafood restaurant into a tropical paradise when a nor'easter threatens to cancel the parents' long-awaited twentieth anniversary honeymoon to the Bahamas.
— By Leah Wolfe Schooled, by Gordon Korman; Hyperion Books for Children: New York, 2007; $15.99 Have you ever been the target of teasing? Or have you even been the one...
— During a freezing night soccer game, a player overcomes bitter cold and narrowly misses a goal, finding warmth in his teammates' support and love for the game.
— After her father's death, a girl moves repeatedly with her family until discovering abandoned baby mice in their new backyard gives her purpose and healing.
— A gondola ride on a New York lake at dusk becomes a meditation on the city's transformation as day turns to night, ending with the gondolier's Italian song.
— A flock of geese migrating south encounters a storm at sea, observing a skipjack crew struggling below before pushing through to reach land.