authentic voice
— A salmon's perspective during its final leap upstream, narrowly escaping a grizzly bear's jaws before reaching calmer waters.
— A girl mourns her lost dog Dixon, taken from her family, holding onto hope that he lives somewhere and remembers being loved.
— A small new kid at school finds belonging when his unlikely friend, a football player, invites him to join the game and helps him up after a hard tackle.
— An 11-year-old processes her parents' divorce through a poem that moves from suppressed tears to overwhelming grief, cataloging each source of pain.
— A girl sent to live with grandparents in Maine because her family has eight children finds a stray kitten on the beach and realizes she hasn't been abandoned after all.
— A girl sneaks out at night to the boardwalk, discovers a manatee tangled in a net, rescues it with her parents' help, and later travels to Florida to release it.
— A girl brings home her first pet, a crested gecko, carefully observing its colors and movements as it adjusts to its new terrarium.
— A girl tries to save her family's ancient oak tree by climbing into its branches, but fails; later finds solace when a cat makes a home in the fallen logs.
— A girl reluctantly visits her Japanese American great-grandmother and learns about her imprisonment in internment camps during World War II, discovering untold history.
— A ten-year-old mariachi violinist battles stage fright before performing a Spanish love song solo at the International Mariachi Conference in Tucson.