vivid characters
— During a military coup in Sierra Leone, a fifth-grader shelters with his embassy family, finding and symbolically discarding a bullet that represents the violence surrounding them.
— Eight-year-old Soon-Soon Wang flees Cultural Revolution China for America after her parents are taken by the government, leaving behind her best friend Xiao-Long.
— A 10-year-old recounts Hannibal's ambush of Roman forces at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, detailing military preparations, strategy, and the devastating Carthaginian victory.
— A six-year-old girl hatches a duckling from an abandoned egg, raises it as her best friend, then learns to let it return to its wild family at the pond.
— A wild African horse is captured, shipped to America, and passed between owners until she escapes during a film shoot and returns to freedom on the African plains.
— A tall, insecure fifteen-year-old faces pressure to cheat on a state test from a classmate, but finds courage through her childhood teddy bear to do the right thing.
— A shy girl misreads a sentence that spans two pages, creating classroom tension until a classmate secretly helps her discover the missing words.
— A girl reluctantly cleans her room instead of playing computer games, rediscovering lost toys and finding satisfaction in organizing her belongings.
— A curious girl investigates her neighborhood's 'crazy' artist who painted a giant portrait on his house, discovering the painting is made of tiny diverse people and the man is misunderstood.
— At summer camp, a boy befriends Caylan, a special needs camper, and defies the drama director by bringing him onstage to perform in the camp musical together.