When Mr. Lincoln, "the coolest principal in the whole world," discovers that Eugene, the school bully, knows a lot about birds, he uses this interest to help Eugene overcome his intolerance.
During a heavy rainstorm in 1930s rural Mississippi, a ten-year-old white boy sees a bus driver order all the black passengers off a crowded bus to make room for late-arriving white passengers and then set off across the raging Rosa Lee River.
Years after a violent New England raid by the Redcoats and their Revolutionary War Indian allies, two families, one that suffered during that raid and one with an Indian mother and Patriot father, become neighbors and must deal with past trauma and prejudices before they can help each other in the present.
A boy with a face so sad that nobody wants to look at him runs away with a caravan of giants to the city of dragons, where his sorrowful face is finally appreciated.