finding home
— A homeless orphan girl in Paris meets a mysterious old woman who turns out to be a pirate captain, and after stealing her ring, is invited to join the crew.
— A girl receives a cedar bracelet and a story about courage from her cousin before moving across the country, finding strength to face change.
— A boy catalogs the sensory details of his family's playroom — chessmen, Legos, piano, moths on windows — revealing it as his sanctuary from the outside world.
— A boy reflects on the tree outside his old bedroom window—his silent companion through childhood frustrations—and its loss in a hurricane, while settling into a new room with a new...
— A girl awaits her mother's return for a crucial school interview, only to learn her mother is hospitalized and she'll enter foster care.
— A nocturnal tour through a small town captures the quiet life of buildings, objects, and creatures after dark, from creaking floorboards to a bobbing pond raft.
— A girl observes her cat's nightly ritual of staring at a grandfather clock, finding in the cat's simple presence a lesson about time and certainty.
— A six-year-old dreams of creating an immortality potion, achieves it as an adult through a meteor fragment, becomes wealthy, then loses everything and returns to normal life.
— A small hut on a hill weathers a fierce storm, then settles into sleep as the sun emerges, its empty interior somehow full of the warmth of home.
— A girl arrives at a family gathering in North Carolina, plays with cousins, collects wood for a fire, and finds home in the sensory details of the reunion.