emotional depth
— During a sailing race with a $100 prize, a boy gives up certain victory to help his friend win the money for his dying father's medical care.
— A poem captures the last night before a friend moves to Ireland, from joyful evening to tearful goodbye as she disappears in the rain.
— A tomboy daughter discovers her mother's insistence on frilly dresses stems from her own deprived childhood, leading to mutual understanding and acceptance.
— A boy finds solace at a secluded spot by a reservoir, where memories of catching frogs with his brother merge with present sensory details of water, weather, and wildlife.
— A family's annual August trip to Mission Beach in San Diego brings together two close families for a day of racing to the ocean, splashing, and summer traditions.
— An eleven-year-old returns from Russia to New York and is detained at customs, intensifying her desperate longing to reunite with her parents and her city.
— A wild mare protects her foal from mustangers, is rescued by police, and forms a bond with a girl who ultimately sets them free, only to have them return.
— A young boy searches a war-torn battlefield for his father after his mother's death, crossing a freezing river to finally find him through their matching blue eyes.
— A girl afraid of dogs since childhood overcomes her fear to rescue a stray on Christmas Eve, convincing her family to adopt him as their annual charity project.
— A grieving boy finds his dead mother's spirit in a swan at the pond she loved, after dreams tell him to 'listen to it.'