vivid characters
— A boy's dream summer with the Yankees is replaced by a Montana ranch visit where he discovers his grandfather's hidden baseball past and they heal old wounds together.
— During a dinner of liver and broccoli, a girl dreams she travels to Depression-era Berlin and wartime Vietnam, witnessing hungry children fighting over scraps.
— A girl watches her cousin Rebecca cling to hope that her divorced father will return, even after he attempts to kidnap her and robs a bank.
— A girl raised by lions in Africa encounters humans who might be her birth parents and must choose between two families.
— A Thai girl defies her overprotective mother to save their home by selling the family's beloved mango tree to pay off the mortgage.
— A Manhattan girl spends a reluctant summer on a Kentucky farm, where a barefoot country girl teaches her to climb trees, ride horses, and watch sunrises.
— In 3014, thirteen-year-old Cassie's birthday is forgotten when her busy parents leave for work trips, but she finds strength in a message from her great-grandmother.
— A boy finds a freezing kitten in the snow and fights to save her, discovering his mother's hidden past with pets and her fear of losing them again.
— A boy discovers a hidden world beneath his grandparents' farm where woodpecker-rabbit hybrids attack him with hot embers and ice until his grandfather rescues him.
— A working-class girl secretly drives four hours to audition at a prestigious music school with her grandmother's cello, hoping to win a scholarship her family can't afford.