J. Brian Pinkney

"Good friends Otter and Beaver use water and sticks for very different purposes as they spend time together"--

"Owen loves soccer, but isn't the best at playing it. After a particularly disastrous day on the field, Owen is benched. He is feeling so low that he doesn't notice the ball rolling away from him until it's too late. In his effort to get it back, he discovers that he has more skills than he realizes"--

Although he doesn't feel like talking, a young boy responds to questions by drumming on various objects, including a bucket, hat boxes, and garbage cans.

Nena wants to be a Diva, with a capital D, just like her mommy, who's a star on Broadway. So she learns all she can about singing and dancing when she is at the theater and trains day and night to make her dreams come true.

"Follow a little girl as she moves, swings, and grooves her way through her bedtime routine, dancing all the while, until she finally closes her eyes and dances through her dreams"--

When her little sister, Akeer, becomes sick when they are returning home from the water hole, Nya must carry her and the water back to their village, one step at a time.

Mama Nsoso knows her chicks need a warm new house, but each day when they set out to collect sticks and mud she is distracted by good things to eat, while Little Chick stays busy gathering the building materials himself.

"A prayer from mother to son that he will always in safe hands"--

Peggony-Po, carved out of wood by his father, a one-legged whaler, determines to catch the huge whale that ate his father's leg.