A school trip to the natural history museum goes awry when the curator, Ms. Krup, loses her giant cockroach and A.J. and his friends decide to explore the museum in the middle of the night.

After Izzy visits an art museum in the big city, he becomes inspired to make his own art.

Having lost his mother and his hearing in a short time, twelve-year-old Ben leaves his Minnesota home in 1977 to seek the father he never knew in New York City, and meets there Rose, who is also longing for something missing from her life. Ben's story is told in words; Rose's in pictures.

"When a family goes to a local museum, a boy notices a homeless man sitting outside, making brightly colored origami birds. He convinces his dad to buy a bird the man makes just for him. Once inside the museum, his little sister takes the bird and launches it into the air. Is it lost? Soon another boy helps him look, and the paper bird brings two families--and two new friends--together" --