travel
— A twelve-year-old slave named Curtis escapes via the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman, reaching Canada where he reunites with his father and gains the surname Freedom.
— A girl on a manatee tour in Crystal River struggles with the ethics of wildlife tourism, choosing not to alert her group when she encounters a manatee alone.
— 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 girl loses her cherished bracelet in the ocean and learns to value her cousin's happiness over material possessions when she imagines a fish wearing it.
— A young writer rediscovers the exhilaration of flight, watching the world shrink below while yearning to experience the sky without the plane's protection.
— A young naturalist's journey from protecting bird nests at four to confronting caged owls in Myanmar, learning hard lessons about nature's cruelty and human intervention.
— An adopted Korean girl visits her birth village on Easter, confronting the life she might have lived before choosing the family who raised her.
— A businesswoman at San Francisco airport reluctantly agrees to deliver a mysterious package from a deaf stranger to his daughter in New York.
— During a violent storm in France, an older brother frightens his adopted younger sibling with tornado tales, then realizes his cruelty and transforms the storm into an adventure game.
— A Cambodian child recounts surviving the Khmer Rouge regime, forced labor camps, dangerous escape attempts, and eventual journey to freedom in America.