A girl and her community celebrate the arrival of the water man when he comes on his weekly visit to distribute water to a Cuban village.

Truly Lovejoy's hopes for a perfect summer are dashed when she is sent to mermaid academy, complete with a sparkly tail, but she finds a new mystery for the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes to investigate.

A mouse upsets villagers just before Passover by stealing a crumb of bread from one house and running into another, then brings neighbors together to finish preparing for the holiday. Includes background information about the story and glossary.

In the poverty of the Appalachian coal country in 1908, eight-year-old Minna's life gets even more difficult after her father dies of black lung, and that winter she cannot go to school because she does not have a coat--until the quilting mothers make her a coat using pieces of cloth from their own lives, each with a special story behind it.