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— A boy sits alone in his room during his birthday party, listening to family sounds below and feeling grateful for this perfect moment.
— A Chinese mother faces an impossible choice when officials demand she give up one of her two children under the one-child law, ultimately deciding to leave China.
— 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.
— 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.
— Leaving her family's beach house for the last time this summer, a girl recalls memories of swimming, sailing, and sea turtles while dreading the return to school schedules.
— A boy ventures into a hostile winter storm, finding strange comfort in the desolate streets before retreating to the warmth of home.
— After her house burns down, Angela returns to sift through the ashes, finds her parents' charred wedding photo, and finally allows herself to grieve before reconciling with her mother.
— A wooden treasure box carved from Australian jarrah wood tells its centuries-long journey from forest to sailing ship ballast to African railroad ties, now holding memories.
— A poem that defines 'alone' through images of isolation: a homeless man at a grocery store, refugees fleeing, a pillar in rubble, an Iraqi mother, a turban among baseball caps.