atmospheric setting
— Leaving her family's beach house for the last time this summer, a girl recalls memories of swimming, sailing, and sea turtles while dreading the return to school schedules.
— In 3014, thirteen-year-old Cassie's birthday is forgotten when her busy parents leave for work trips, but she finds strength in a message from her great-grandmother.
— A Chinese mother faces an impossible choice when officials demand she give up one of her two children under the one-child law, ultimately deciding to leave China.
— A girl goes cross-country skiing with her grandfather in winter woods, gets separated from him, hears a pack of coyotes, and feels a deep connection to the forest.
— A boy ventures into a hostile winter storm, finding strange comfort in the desolate streets before retreating to the warmth of home.
— An Alaskan trapper obsessed with killing a lynx that's been raiding his traps discovers she has a kitten and chooses compassion over profit.
— A Brooklyn girl finds refuge in basketball as her parents' marriage dissolves, then moves to a coastal farmhouse after the divorce, starting fresh with a new team.
— A young enslaved man flees through dark woods pursued by slave-catchers, finds what seems to be a safe house on the Underground Railroad, but is captured when the hiding place...
— A working-class girl secretly drives four hours to audition at a prestigious music school with her grandmother's cello, hoping to win a scholarship her family can't afford.
— A Nevada girl becomes obsessed with capturing a wild palomino mustang, but when her father catches the mare for her birthday, she realizes the horse's spirit belongs to the mountains.