growing up
— A girl struggles with jealousy when her best friend moves away and writes about a new friend, then receives an unexpected gift that teaches her about friendship's capacity to expand.
— A grandmother tells her granddaughter how, as a six-year-old lost in a blizzard, she was saved after kissing a mezuzah on a stranger's door—where her future husband found her.
— A young pilot on the USS Yorktown experiences his first combat mission bombing Japanese carriers, losing his best friend and his romantic notions about war.
— While watering tomato plants, a boy watches water flood an ant colony and desperately tries to save drowning ants, reflecting on empathy and the value of small lives.
— Two childhood best friends drift apart after a betrayed secret, then reunite years later on a rainy night at a football game, realizing their pride broke them apart.
— A girl finds her late mother's locket in her backpack, triggering memories of her fourth birthday party and the day her mother died in a car accident.
— A boy trapped by his father's grief after his brother's drowning at sea finds freedom when an Angolan sailor arrives, offering passage to Zanzibar and a chance to reclaim the...
— During the Russian Revolution, a young aristocrat works in a hospital while worrying about her brother at war and witnessing her family's changing views on the Tsar.
— Five softball-obsessed girls who refuse to outgrow their park face a newcomer in pink who shatters both their expectations and a neighbor's window with one swing.
— A ten-year-old boy experiences November 22, 1963, through the lens of his baby brother named after President Kennedy, capturing the moment childhood innocence meets national tragedy.