Seventeen-year-old Julie fell in love with Sam the day she met him, and planned to attend college with him; but Sam died, and getting rid of his things, trying to erase him from her life is not working, so desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls his cellphone expecting to hear his voicemail--but then Sam answers, and suddenly their cellphones become the living connection between them, a connection Julie finds impossible to let go.

Tess Medina is dealing with the loss of her beloved father, a new school, and the troubling fact that the thing she enjoys most in life, baking, seems to be making her increasingly ill--something she is trying to hide from everybody.

The magic tree house is back with a message from Morgan le Fay telling Jack and Annie to seek out "The Gray Ghost" and listen to her story, and immediately they are whisked away to Nepal where they meet Tenzin, a climber who has recently lost his family, and who takes them up the mountain to meet a snow leopard and renew himself.

Twelve-year-olds Reef and Theo have a mutual problem: their memories are getting mixed up, and that means that Reef is losing his memory of his mother, recently dead of COVID, which terrifies him--but for Theo his new memories are helping him deal with his domineering father. Reef and Theo don't know what's happening to them. They'll be going about their days and then suddenly they'll have these strange flashes of memory -- but the memories don't...

"Declan O'Brien always had a gentle word to share, odd phrases he liked to repeat, and songs to sing while he played basketball. His favorite song was Dona Nobis Pacem, 'Grant Us Peace.' His family loved him deeply and always knew they were loved in return. but a terrible accident one day changes their lives forever, and Fiona and Finn O'Brien are left without a father. Their mother is at a loss. What words are there to guide them through such overwhelming...

"Norma and her parents are going to her great-uncle Frank's funeral, and Norma is more excited than sad. She is looking forward to playing with her favorite cousin, Ray, but when she arrives at the church, she is confronted with rituals and ideas that have never occurred to her before. While not all questions can be answered, when the day is over Norma is certain of one thing: Uncle Frank would have enjoyed his funeral. This sensitive and life-affirming...

"Grandmother lives with Grace's family. She teaches her how to measure water for rice. She tells her stories about growing up in China and together they savor the flavors of her childhood. Grandmother says goodbye when she drops Grace off at school every morning and hello when she picks her up at the end of the day. Then, Grandmother stops walking Grace to and from school, and the door to her room stays closed. Father comes home early to make dinner,...

Clayton feels most alive when he's with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd, and the band of Bluesmen -- he can't wait to join them, just as soon as he has a blues song of his own. But then the unthinkable happens. Cool Papa Byrd dies, and Clayton's mother forbids Clayton from playing the blues. And Clayton knows that's no way to live. Armed with his grandfather's brown porkpie hat and his harmonica, he runs away from home in search of the Bluesmen, hoping...

"After losing her beloved sister three years ago, Savannah Litchfield has been living half a life. Now seventeen--the age Poppy died--the pain of losing her is worse than ever. When Savannah's therapist suggests a trip around the world to help teens stricken by loss, she reluctantly agrees to it, clutching the unread journal Poppy left her as she goes. Cael Woods is angry. One year after losing his older brother--the person who meant the world to...

In the bustling Souk Al-Hamidiyah, Yasmine discovers that true joy comes from togetherness as she searches for a gift for her mother during their first Eid without her father.