One day, when Albert is at his window, two cardinals come to build a nest in his hand, an event that changes his life.

"When a young Japanese girl moves into her new house, she is happy to see a girl her age playing in the snow just outside her window. The only problem is the Japanese girl doesn't speak English and the American girl doesn't speak Japanese. But each girl's love of the snow teaches them that they don't need to speak the same language to have fun!"--

Frustrated with the restrictions her gender imposes on her life, fourteen-year-old Donata, disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late sixteenth-century Venice and then must confront the repercussions of her actions.

In the autumn of 1846 in Ireland, twelve-year-old Lorraine and her family struggle to survive during the Irish potato famine, but when Lorraine meets Miss Susannah, the daugher of the wealthy English landowner who owns Lorraine's family's farm, they form an unlikely friendship that they must keep secret due to the deep cultural divide between their two families.

"Fish Girl, a young mermaid living in a boardwalk aquarium, has never interacted with anyone beyond the walls of her tank until a chance encounter with an ordinary girl, Livia. Their growing friendship inspires Fish Girl's longing for freedom, independence, and a life beyond the aquarium tank"--