loneliness
— A girl sent to live with grandparents in Maine because her family has eight children finds a stray kitten on the beach and realizes she hasn't been abandoned after all.
— A girl with overly intellectual parents seeks sisterhood on a school trip to Yosemite, but finds bickering cabinmates, indifferent leaders, and a bed-wetting incident instead.
— A middle child feels invisible after her baby brother's birth, finally confronts her parents about feeling neglected, and receives the love and attention she's been craving.
— A homeless speaker finds beauty in rain-soaked streets while others hurry inside, seeing Picasso in puddles and mythological figures in storm clouds.
— A girl arrives at summer camp hopeful but becomes the target of exclusion, watching the group turn on different girls throughout the month.
— A young person addresses someone who left without explanation, cycling through questions, pleas, and the haunting memory of their whispered apology.
— A boy's subway journey becomes a catalog of encounters — a homeless woman, street performers, a soul-reading stranger — each revealing the city's complex humanity.
— A California girl moves to snowy Minnesota after her parents' divorce, chases a coatless winter cyclist, and discovers an unexpected friendship with someone who feels just as out of place.
— A lonely girl who spends afternoons in the forest rescues a drowning kitten from the river and finds the friend she's been missing.
— A lonely ranch girl discovers a stray silver cat in the barn, secretly feeds it, and eventually adopts it when the cat needs help giving birth to kittens.