After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Nancy is furious when she cannot go to her friend Bree's butterfly-themed birthday party, but her family's outing might just be extraordinary enough to make her feel better.
While living with her grandparents when her mother goes to work in the city, a young Panamanian girl memorizes her mother's favorite poem, "Caperucita Roja," for her school's Christmas pageant.
When her parents get a divorce, seven-year-old Ginger lives for a while with each set of grandparents and begins to understand her mixed background and her new family situation.
Spending the summer in the country with her grandparents, five-year-old Star has a chance to make friends with raccoons, swans, and other animals both domestic and wild.
Left with his grandfather until his parents are settled in Detroit, Sammy learns to respect and love the old man as they care for an injured crane together.
A girl reflects on Christmas at her grandparents home in the country, with its fresh-cut tree, handmade ornaments, gifts from Santa, and special church services.
During a scarlet fever epidemic one winter in Michigan, a Jewish family helps make Christmas special for their sick neighbors by making their own Hanukkah miracle. Based on a memory from the author's childhood.
