childhood
— 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.
— An 11-year-old holds his baby brother for the first time, contemplating the transfer of childhood wonder from one generation to the next.
— 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.
— A second-grader leaves school early for a phone call from her father's childhood nurse in Greece, navigating language barriers and discovering her connection to a namesake grandmother.
— A boy sits alone in his room during his birthday party, listening to family sounds below and feeling grateful for this perfect moment.
— A boy befriends the new girl in kindergarten over a shared pear, abandons her when teased, then seeks redemption years later by offering her another pear.
— A grandmother tells her granddaughter how, as a six-year-old lost in a blizzard, she was saved after kissing a mezuzah on a stranger's door—where her future husband found her.
— A girl loses her beloved tiger Beanie Baby at the beach, and the story alternates between her grief and the stuffed animal's ocean adventure before their reunion.
— A 12-year-old reflects on privilege and poverty after seeing a photo of Diego, a Guatemalan child he plans to sponsor as a 'big brother.'
— While watering tomato plants, a boy watches water flood an ant colony and desperately tries to save drowning ants, reflecting on empathy and the value of small lives.