illness
— After being attacked by a dog as a toddler, Asa struggles with her fear until a friend's puppy needs adoption following a tragic accident.
— A star basketball player tears her knee in the championship game, faces losing her scholarship dreams, then finds purpose coaching young players while beginning her recovery.
— An elf boy searches for rare ashberries to save a dragonfire victim, remembering how the same berries failed to save his father years before.
— A girl runs thirteen miles home from the hospital where her mother is dying, haunted by the unspoken response to her mother's final 'I love you.'
— During Ireland's potato famine, a boy struggles to support his family after his sister Molly dies of tuberculosis, eventually escaping to America.
— A girl searches for the perfect hospital gift for her grandmother and finds swan boat tickets from their beloved Boston Garden walks, along with a cherished book.
— In drought-stricken Africa, a girl's beloved zebra friend is sacrificed to save her dying mother, then the rains finally come.
— During the Irish Potato Famine, a girl on a coffin ship to America remembers losing her family to starvation and the promise she couldn't keep to her dying sister.
— During community service punishment, Bailey watches ducks struggle free from thorns and finds hope for her parents battling her father's cancer.
— A seventh-grader with a lifelong crush on her neighbor plans to reveal her feelings at the Valentine's dance, but gets the flu and misses it—until a midnight mailbox exchange changes...