In the classic The Family Under the Bridge, Armand is an adorable curmudgeon who lives under a bridge in Paris. When he comes home one day to find three children in his usual spot, he knows he’s in trouble. Especially when these “starlings” decide he should be part of their family. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, shortly after the second World War, a lively girl who loves to run begins to show symptoms of “atomic bomb disease.” Sadako’s whole world becomes a hospital room, where she spends her days folding paper cranes. They’re a kind of charm. Each a wish to be well again. And The Year of Billy Miller, Billy bumps his head over the summer, and he becomes concerned that this will prevent him from being able to be good enough for the second grade. Family stuff. School stuff. Kid stuff.
C. J. Milbrandt 