"Ming survived the famine that killed his parents during China's "Great Leap Forward", and lives a hard but adequate life, working in the fields. When a group of city boys comes to the village as part of a Communist Party re-education program, Ming and his friends aren't sure what to make of the new arrivals. Despite his reservations, Ming befriends a charming city boy called Li. The two couldn't be more different, but slowly they form a bond over...

Princess Cinnamon's stuffy parents want her to look grand, wearing the finest clothes and jewels, and study deportment but Cinnamon longs to be wild and free. Includes directions for making a kite.

After a fellow slave is beaten to death, Sadie and her family flee the plantation for freedom through the Underground Railroad.

When a boy and his granddad take care of a little bird, the boy wants to keep it - but Granddad knows it must return to its natural habitat in the wild, where it can spread its wings and be free. And so begins an exhilarating journey into the mountains to return the bird to where it belongs.

In Communist China in 1966, eight-year-old Leap Forward learns about freedom while flying kites with his best friend, by trying to get a caged wild bird to sing, and through the music he is learning to play on a bamboo flute. Includes author's notes on his childhood in Beijing, life under Mao Zedong, and the Cultural Revolution.

"Olga lives in her kiosk. Every day she looks after her customers and dreams of faraway places. Until one day, a series of absurd events turns her world upside down and Olga finds herself on an unexpected journey"--back cover.