family bonds
— Poor mouse twins receive a visit from the wealthy royal family, whose scorn prompts their mother to declare she's richer in joy than they are in gold.
— A girl who saved a cat finds herself followed by street cats everywhere, leading to chaos when she tries to help them make her mother happy so they won't have...
— During COVID lockdown, a mother and son each make wishes on matching copper bracelets that transport them through time, teaching them what they've taken for granted.
— A girl faces her aunt's terminal illness through the metaphor of a falling bomb while a mourning dove sits motionless on their roof, refusing to move.
— Five vignettes explore monsoon rain in India, questions of faith and atheism, becoming an older sister, a medical emergency, and reflections on friendship and the pandemic.
— A girl captures a single domestic moment: her brother toddling, father playing guitar, mother cooking, while she types and notices summer trees blooming outside.
— A boy struggles with writer's block on a memoir assignment until his family's support helps him realize he's been living the story he needs to write.
— A girl falls through her apartment floor into another realm where she teams up with a refugee shelter volunteer to steal a car and journey to the mysterious island of...
— Katrina's life changes when she befriends Mr. McCumber, a lonely old man, and later finds herself in an orphanage where she forms a chosen family with other orphaned girls.
— After a fire destroys their farm's crops and orchard, Oscar must decide whether to sell his beloved foal Rose to help his family survive the winter.