The author remembers the summer when she was ten years old and staying with her father in Michigan where she took riding lessons and became best friends with a perfect horse.

Soon after her beloved grandmother's death, Trisha's family moves to a diverse California neighborhood where she meets Stewart and his grandmother, Miss Eula, who brings people together to help a grieving neighbor.

Three goats escape from their pen and visit a fair, but they run back home after they seem to encounter an ogre.

At the public library in her new town, Patricia meets Mrs. Creavy, an encouraging librarian who introduces Patricia to the books of John James Audubon and helps her become the first member of the Audubon Bird Club of Freemont Elementary.

A quiet rural community is dramatically changed when a meteor crashes down in the front yard of the Gaw family.

A long-lasting friendship develops between Larnel, a young African-American, and Mrs. Katz, a lonely Jewish widow, when Larnel presents Mrs. Katz with a scrawny kitten without a tail.

Three young children experience the joys and challenges of being raised by two mothers.

A single china cup from a tea set left behind when Jews were forced to leave Russia helps hold a family together through generations of living in America, reminding them of the most important things in life.

Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and children gather at a farm house to celebrate Christmas in the Russian tradition.

A homemade quilt ties together the lives of four generations of an immigrant Jewish family, remaining a symbol of their enduring love and faith.