effective symbolism
— After her mother's death, a girl obsessively fills her life with activities until a poetry assignment about sadness breaks through her denial.
— A thirteen-year-old writer rises before dawn on the summer solstice to watch the sunrise alone, finding validation for her literary dreams in nature's voice.
— A boy befriends the new girl in kindergarten over a shared pear, abandons her when teased, then seeks redemption years later by offering her another pear.
— A twelve-year-old girl struggles with her parents' prolonged grief over her baby brother's death until her fiddle performance helps them all find healing.
— A mother tells her daughter about strangers who helped her stuck car in a blizzard years ago, and how she repaid their kindness by helping others on snowy roads.
— A young pilot on the USS Yorktown experiences his first combat mission bombing Japanese carriers, losing his best friend and his romantic notions about war.
— A foster girl discovers a mermaid near her temporary home on an island, reads a diary from 1820 about the same creature, and chooses to join the underwater world.
— Two childhood best friends drift apart after a betrayed secret, then reunite years later on a rainy night at a football game, realizing their pride broke them apart.
— A Union soldier at Gettysburg confronts the death of his best friend while wrestling with memories of his father and the meaning of war as 'a game of chess.'
— A girl watches her mysterious neighbor Rochelle for years before discovering she's created an elaborate kingdom from stones, each with names and personalities.