May/June 2015
— A lonely ranch girl discovers a stray silver cat in the barn, secretly feeds it, and eventually adopts it when the cat needs help giving birth to kittens.
— A child sends love through night sounds and constellations to someone far away, finding connection in shared memories of crickets and stars.
— A young pianist reflects on why she continues despite the tedium of practice, finding meaning in performance, emotional expression, and connecting with elderly audiences.
— There Will Be Bears, by Ryan Gebhart; Candlewick Press: Somerville, Massachusetts, 2014; $16.99 When I first saw the cover of this book, I wasn’t very interested, so I put it...
— A businesswoman at San Francisco airport reluctantly agrees to deliver a mysterious package from a deaf stranger to his daughter in New York.
— A young poet imagines her future home painted paradise blue, with wind chimes, forsythia, and wandering aromas creating an oasis among city streets.
— Two cousins at a beach house share the same drowning nightmare, then follow a mysterious voice to rescue a seal trapped in a fishing net.
— I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb; Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2013; $26 Would you stand up for what you believe in, even if it meant...
— A son profiles his mother, a Chinese immigrant who expresses herself through cooking, weaving together her Beijing childhood, American journey, and culinary mastery.
— A girl having a terrible day meets a mysterious boy who shows her a hidden pond with lotus flowers growing from mud, teaching her about resilience.