March/April 2017
— Rain transforms a city into a sanctuary, wrapping it in gray blankets of mist while thunder and lightning create a world apart from complications.
— A lonely Indian boy finds friendship and belonging when a girl from his school discovers him at his secret pond refuge in Minnesota.
— A child connects Van Gogh's Starry Night to moments with parents—dad at the museum, mom watching them draw—finding calm in the painting above their bed.
— A girl escapes her stifling bedroom on a summer night to lie in the grass under moonlight, until her mother gently brings her back inside.
— George, by Alex Gino; Scholastic Press: New York, 2015; $16.99 George could not have come out at a better time. LGBT rights is an important issue, yet for kids...
— A girl resentful of caring for her sister with cerebral palsy realizes during a Thanksgiving church service that her sister has never complained despite having far less.
— A girl inherits a magic fiddle from a mysterious man in the woods, and when she plays it by candlelight, shadows come alive and dance on moonbeams.
— A boat being pulled from water becomes a meditation on the narrow margins between opposing forces—connection and separation, life and death.
— A young pitcher struggles through a tough inning, then later coaches his younger brother through batting practice, passing on his coach's wisdom about perseverance.
— Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery; Simon & Schuster: New York, 2014; $7.99 Few books copy the whimsy of childhood. Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The...