emotional depth
— During the Pearl Harbor attack, a young Japanese-American woman searches desperately for her brother among the wreckage while confronting sudden hostility from her neighbors.
— A boy plays fetch with his golden retriever, gives her a reluctant bath, then they rest together watching clouds—a perfect day he'd relive forever.
— During the Russian Revolution, a young aristocrat works in a hospital while worrying about her brother at war and witnessing her family's changing views on the Tsar.
— A child recalls traveling interstate routes with her father, listening to Willie Nelson, wishing she could relive that hazy memory a thousand times.
— A thirteen-year-old girl escapes the frustrations of seventh grade by galloping her horse Hobo, transforming their ride into a fantasy race at Churchill Downs.
— A boy trapped by his father's grief after his brother's drowning at sea finds freedom when an Angolan sailor arrives, offering passage to Zanzibar and a chance to reclaim the...
— A lonely girl at her father's wolf release center befriends an outcast wolf named Lupus, helping him rejoin a pack before his release into the wild.
— A boy and his grandmother sit outside a dingy trailer, their bright smiles transforming the worn surroundings into something luminous.
— A girl regrets not defending her Korean classmate Marion when a popular boy makes a racist comment, learning a painful lesson about moral courage and complicity.
— A girl who resents her difficult grandfather discovers her love for him only when he's hospitalized with a heart attack and gives her a locket containing a photo of them...