books
— After his mother's death, a boy who once hated writing discovers fiction and publishes a book dedicated to her memory, finding friendship with his former bully.
— 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.
— An 8-year-old processes 9/11 through the contrast between her safe home life, library escapes, and the frightening images on TV, wondering about children in other countries.
— In 1850, a sixteen-year-old girl who dreams of more than housework meets a stranger who takes her poetry to a printing press, changing her life forever.
— A girl running her family's B&B feels isolated until an author guest shows her that her world contains many worlds, prompting her to reach out to a stranger.
— A book-obsessed boy forced on a tech-free vacation meets Chester, a local kid who gives him a tour of the quirky town and becomes his first real friend.
— A Vietnamese refugee girl struggles with isolation at her new American school until a classmate teaches her English in the library, word by word, leading to friendship.
— A boy learns his parents are divorcing, finds solace in his golden retriever Lucky, and escapes into baseball—both through books and a Giants game.
— During the Civil War, eight-year-old Tom struggles to support his mother after his father and brother join the Union army, culminating in a Confederate raid and miraculous reunion.
— A reader finds refuge in a library chair by the window, where fictional battles of knights and dragons prove easier to face than real-world problems.