Creel, Ann Howard

When ten-year-old Nicki Fleming, who is a natural with animals, volunteers to help her mother train a service dog, she doesn't realize how much responsibility she's taking on and how much she'll have to give up along the way.

Nicki's school year gets off to a rough start with trying to reconcile her feuding best friends, awaiting the birth of twin siblings, and learning to accept that Sprocket, the service dog she spent the summer raising, will soon leave for placement with someone who needs him. Includes an essay on service dogs.

In a series of letters and journal entries, twelve-year-old Vivien describes being abandoned by her mother and struggling to survive on the streets of a big city while searching for her family.

After a busy summer training Sprocket, the service dog she has been raising, Nicki's school year gets off to a rough start as she works on reconciling her two best friends, accepting that Sprocket will soon leave for placement with someone who needs him, and awaiting the birth of the twins her mother is expecting. Includes an essay on service dogs.

When her family moves from Florida to the Colorado prairie to raise alpacas, twelve-year-old Laney must leave behind the ocean she loves and accept the new landscape and life ahead of her.

Minister's daughter Olivia Dunne, pushed into a hastily arranged marriage to beet farmer Ray Singleton after a one-night stand with a departing American soldier leaves her pregnant, slowly relinquishes her long-held dreams of study and travel as she comes to love and admire her husband.

Ten-year-old Nicki Fleming, a natural with animals, volunteers to help her mother train a service dog, not realizing how much responsibility she is taking on and how much she will have to give up along the way.