family bonds
— A boy jealous of his cousin's building projects with their grandfather finally gets his chance when they build a chicken coop together during a summer visit.
— 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 girl discovers a mysterious book that transports her into its pages, where she finds reassurance that her comatose sister will recover.
— A ten-year-old girl struggles to reconnect with her father when he returns from World War II, discovering both his trauma and their shared memories at the chicken coop.
— A boy accidentally breaks a window playing baseball, chooses to tell his mother despite a friend's advice to hide it, and learns about honesty and taking responsibility.
— A daughter breaks her mother's precious clay pot while fetching water, lies about it, then confesses. Together they remake the pot from its broken pieces.
— A Navajo boarding school student is haunted by visions of an angry gorilla until a traditional medicine man reveals the source and performs a healing ceremony.
— A Navajo girl witnesses her grandfather, a medicine man, heal her mother from witchcraft by finding and burning a buried bear paw placed by a malevolent neighbor.
— A Cambodian child recounts surviving the Khmer Rouge regime, forced labor camps, dangerous escape attempts, and eventual journey to freedom in America.
— A six-year-old boy recounts three escape attempts from Vietnam, imprisonment, and the journey through refugee camps to reach America.