May/June 2014
— A second-grader's world shifts when her beloved teacher announces his retirement, sending her through grief, illness, and eventual acceptance over the course of a school year.
— A prose poem traces the precise moment when ocean and sky merge at twilight, finding that exact blue-black in the speaker's own eyes.
— A thirteen-year-old girl remembers her brother's journey from playful teenager to soldier while processing the news that he's missing in action in Afghanistan.
— A middle school boy who loves dance faces relentless bullying until he decides to perform in the school talent show to show his classmates what dance truly means to him.
— A young writer climbs her favorite oak tree overlooking dark water, finding solitude and inspiration in the worn branches where she writes.
— A mute girl in southern Africa discovers the feared Jago bird that terrorizes her village is protecting its silent chicks, finding her own voice through their connection.
— A child dives into a warm pond where rainbow trout circle and bite toes, experiencing the underwater world as a distant, heavenly place.
— A girl loses her cherished bracelet in the ocean and learns to value her cousin's happiness over material possessions when she imagines a fish wearing it.
— The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine; Penguin Young Readers Group: New York, 2013; $7.99 Have you ever read a book where you’re able to relate so much to...
— A boy accidentally shoots a squirrel with his BB gun, then desperately tries to save it, confronting his guilt and the reality of what he's done.