home
— A foster child traveling to a new placement bonds with her driver when their car breaks down, discovering he and his adoptive parents will be her new family.
— A girl named Yellow Rose navigates grief, loneliness, and her father's new girlfriend until a chance encounter with a neighbor opens a door to friendship.
— A midnight journey from bed to kitchen for milk captures the disorienting sensory details of being awake at 3:30 A.M.
— A girl resents moving to a run-down house with her divorced mother until she discovers her mom crying over photos of her father, realizing they share the same grief.
— A girl recalls her baseball-playing brother who returns from WWII as a ghost of himself, until their shared baseball finally breaks his silence.
— During a blizzard in 1861, fourteen-year-old Abby takes over for an injured Pony Express rider to deliver President Lincoln's inaugural speech two miles through the storm.
— A girl whose mother died when she was six moves constantly with her father until Miami promises permanence—but that promise breaks too, teaching her home is wherever loved ones are.
— A catalog of sounds in the aftermath of loss — from helicopters to stomach gurgles to silence — anchored by an empty iguana cage.
— A Japanese-American teenager recounts her family's forced internment during WWII, from receiving the summons through years at Manzanar to liberation that brings no true freedom.
— During an autumn storm, forest creatures—a squirrel, owl, fox, mole, and others—struggle for shelter and food, their lives intersecting in a complex web of survival.