loss and grief
— A poem that defines 'alone' through images of isolation: a homeless man at a grocery store, refugees fleeing, a pillar in rubble, an Iraqi mother, a turban among baseball caps.
— A boy finds a freezing kitten in the snow and fights to save her, discovering his mother's hidden past with pets and her fear of losing them again.
— A twelve-year-old girl struggles with her parents' prolonged grief over her baby brother's death until her fiddle performance helps them all find healing.
— A girl allergic to fur finds companionship in a praying mantis named Forget Me Not, who becomes a beloved pet before laying eggs and dying in the family's arms.
— A circus clown loses his beloved leopard partner in a tragic accident, returns home to save his family's farm, marries his childhood sweetheart, then loses their daughter in another animal...
— 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.
— A girl loses her beloved tiger Beanie Baby at the beach, and the story alternates between her grief and the stuffed animal's ocean adventure before their reunion.
— Two sisters leave their island home after a baby's drowning, sent to live with their aunt on the mainland while their mother recovers from grief.
— After a baby's drowning death, thirteen-year-old Eve and her sister are sent from their Massachusetts island home to the mainland while their mother recovers from grief.
— A foster girl discovers a mermaid near her temporary home on an island, reads a diary from 1820 about the same creature, and chooses to join the underwater world.