strong imagery
— During an autumn storm, forest creatures—a squirrel, owl, fox, mole, and others—struggle for shelter and food, their lives intersecting in a complex web of survival.
— A girl watches her paralyzed best friend secretly train for a year to ride again after a jumping accident, until their friendship is restored when Amy successfully jumps her horse.
— A boy recounts his great-grandfather's forced migration from Mexico and the miraculous journey of his dalmatian Pinto, who tracked him 2000 miles to California before dying of exhaustion.
— A boy recounts the aftermath of a crash he can't remember, describing the physical trauma and how others see him differently while he remains the same inside.
— A girl befriends bear cubs, discovers her taxidermist father killed their mother, and years later must choose between saving him from a bear attack or protecting the animal.
— A twelve-year-old discovers seventy-five letters from 1919-1923 between her great-grandmother and a French pen pal, Cécile, who died at age twenty.
— A girl's special day with her father is interrupted when he brings home an abused horse, and she discovers her calling in helping the animal heal.
— 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 child watches sunset from the beach, sees dolphins, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow to the ocean shore.