Hyde, Heidi Smith

To escape the Nazis, a young Jewish boy named Marcus and his family move to Shanghai, where Marcus and his new friend Liang build a sukkah on the roof and together they celebrate Sukkot and the Chinese Moon Festival.

As they plant trees and do other environmental projects for the Civilian Conservation Corps, Russian immigrants Pavel and Anatoly are happy to find employment during the Great Depression, but when other workers accuse them of not being "real Americans," Pavel and Anatoly learn the words to the Star Spangled Banner, newly designated by Congress as the national anthem.

A Jewish immigrant who is saving money to bring his wife and children to join him in America creates ornate horses for a carousel on Coney Island, one for each member of his family.

In 1898, just after his Bar Mitzvah, thirteen-year-old Elan and his family travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he meets his mother's family and participates in the Pueblo ceremony of becoming a man.

Mendel, an accordion player with a klezmer band in Eastern Europe, makes happy and sad music in and around his hometown of Melnitze, a practice he continues after moving to America, but with each succeeding generation the accordion becomes less popular until his great-grandson Samuel makes the decision to learn to play Mendel's music.