belonging
— A small new kid at school finds belonging when his unlikely friend, a football player, invites him to join the game and helps him up after a hard tackle.
— 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 deaf girl who resents her church organist for being able to hear discovers an unexpected friendship when asked to turn pages during a memorial service performance.
— 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.
— An eleven-year-old returns from Russia to New York and is detained at customs, intensifying her desperate longing to reunite with her parents and her city.
— A family's annual August trip to Mission Beach in San Diego brings together two close families for a day of racing to the ocean, splashing, and summer traditions.
— A wild mare protects her foal from mustangers, is rescued by police, and forms a bond with a girl who ultimately sets them free, only to have them return.
— 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.
— After a friendship ruptures over a science project, Jess discovers her late mother's journals and plans a camping sleepover to reconcile with Bailey under the stars.
— After a power outage during a grief support group, a girl searches for her missing classmate and discovers they share a deeper bond through loss.