New neighbors are moving in across the street, and Ben can't wait to go say hello and make friends. That is, until he notices that this family has a pet dog. Ben isn't so sure around dogs. The big jaws and big teeth make him nervous. But what Ben doesn't realize is that Max is an "old scaredy-dog" who feels nervous too. Can Ben overcome his fear and come to see eye-to-eye with a new kind of friend?
It is time to plant the rice crop in Malini's Sri Lankan community, and the little girl is both excited and nervous to help for the first time. What if she does it wrong? Will she be responsible if the crop fails? When the oxcart rumbles in loaded with seedlings, she reluctantly agrees to watch the big, imposing animal while the driver takes a break. Suddenly, the skies go dark with monsoon rain. A flash flood pours down the road, separating Malini from the driver and her family. They are shouting for her to run for higher ground, but what about the rice? Summoning up courage she never dreamed she possessed, Malini resolves to save ox, cart, and seedlings, no matter what it takes--Provided by Publisher
The little girl in this story loves to visit Grandpa's farm where she and her cousins run through the fields, swing out the bar loft window and feed crab apples to the Appaloosa in the corral. They explore the root cellar and tiptoe into Grandpa's secret room to look at memories from the past.
When Shin-chi and his sister go off to his first year of Residential School in a cattle truck, she warns him of all the things he must not do. The days are long, he is very lonely and always hungry, but he finds solace down at the river with a gift from his father, a tiny cedar canoe. It seems like a very long time until the salmon swim upriver again and he can finally go home.
Shi-shi-etko, a Native American girl, spends the last four days before she goes to residential school learning valuable lessons from her mother, father, and grandmother, and creating precious memories of home.