vivid characters
— A deaf girl who resents her church organist for being able to hear discovers an unexpected friendship when asked to turn pages during a memorial service performance.
— A girl reluctantly visits her Japanese American great-grandmother and learns about her imprisonment in internment camps during World War II, discovering untold history.
— A girl with overly intellectual parents seeks sisterhood on a school trip to Yosemite, but finds bickering cabinmates, indifferent leaders, and a bed-wetting incident instead.
— A tomboy daughter discovers her mother's insistence on frilly dresses stems from her own deprived childhood, leading to mutual understanding and acceptance.
— A girl named Adrin strikes a dangerous bargain with Beta, a wolf who killed her father, agreeing to retrieve a magical owl diadem within eight days or forfeit her life.
— A girl's racehorse Royal Blue faces his rival King of the Wind in the Kentucky Derby, with tensions rising when the rival's exercise rider becomes the jockey.
— 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 girl races along the beach following a dolphin, sprinting through sand and tide pools to keep up with the graceful creature before having to leave for the airport.
— A girl chosen as a dragon sacrifice discovers that her brother's lily hair clip, given as a farewell gift, becomes the weapon that defeats the beast.
— A Montana girl raises money to visit her beloved horse Missoula, who has been sent to Missouri to work as a therapy horse for children with disabilities.