authentic voice
— An 11-year-old holds his baby brother for the first time, contemplating the transfer of childhood wonder from one generation to the next.
— A girl raised by lions in Africa encounters humans who might be her birth parents and must choose between two families.
— A Thai girl defies her overprotective mother to save their home by selling the family's beloved mango tree to pay off the mortgage.
— After her mother's death, a girl obsessively fills her life with activities until a poetry assignment about sadness breaks through her denial.
— A high-achieving student preparing for a prestigious science program rediscovers her abandoned passion for dance when an application asks what she's passionate about.
— A child watches sunset from the beach, sees dolphins, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow to the ocean shore.
— During a dinner of liver and broccoli, a girl dreams she travels to Depression-era Berlin and wartime Vietnam, witnessing hungry children fighting over scraps.
— A boy watches sunset from the ocean shore, sees dolphins leaping, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow.
— A Manhattan girl spends a reluctant summer on a Kentucky farm, where a barefoot country girl teaches her to climb trees, ride horses, and watch sunrises.
— An 8-year-old processes 9/11 through the contrast between her safe home life, library escapes, and the frightening images on TV, wondering about children in other countries.