"All Jasper John Dooley was trying to do was practice his reading skills. He wanted to be ready for his turn to sit in the big, comfy chair at the library on Wednesday and read to Molly the Dog. But, even though Jasper was being so so so careful, the wonderful library book about toilet-paper-tube crafts accidentally falls into his bathwater and drowns. After that, he and his dad only make things worse by setting the book on fire and then shooting...

"After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast-elderly people, children, babies-now live in prison camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, it seems, and Tama doesn't know when or if she will ever leave. Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the camp's tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with color and light,...

When fourth-grader Gregory releases a helium-filled balloon into the sky with his name and address attached, it leads to an unusual friendship and an exchange of mystery gifts.