Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history and comes to a better understanding of relatives both dead and living.

Maya's grandfather brings her a pig from Alaska and the two of them learn about fun and sharing together.

A young girl and her mother remember together all the girl's favorite stories about her mother's childhood.

Trains and the legendary engineer Casey Jones are the subjects of a young boy's daydreams that carry him away from the struggles of his daily life. Then one fateful rainy night in April, his dreams are crushed in a train wreck that takes Casey's life. In his sorrow, the boy discovers another hero, his father.

Devastated by the loss of a second father, thirteen-year-old Bird follows her stepfather from Cleveland to Alabama in hopes of convincing him to come home, and along the way helps two boys cope with their difficulties.

Eight-year-old Lila, born with xeroderma pigmentosum, a skin disease that makes her sensitive to sunlight, makes secret plans to feel the sun's rays on her ninth birthday.

Recalls the unheralded men whose labors served to build the canals, roads, railroads, bridges, and towering buildings of the United States.

On the leaving morning, a child watches for the moving men, has a cup of cocoa in the deli across the street, and leaves lip marks on the window of the apartment before departing for the new home.

A little girl imitates her big sister Kyla all day, until in the evening Kyla imitates her.