Detailed colored- pencil drawings show hand shapes for the 26 letters of the American Sign Language alphabet as well as corresponding letters of the written alphabet. For example, a gloved hand forms the letter “G,” fingers dip into a palette of paint to form the letter “P,” and so on.

Zach visits his grandparents every summer at their cottage by the lake. He is looking forward to fishing with Gramps and eating Gram’s cooking. Gramps calls their first idyllic day a “Memory Box Day.” Zach learns that this is a day for young and old to start gathering photos, stories, and souvenirs to store in a special box to remember their times together. As Zach’s time with his grandparents unfolds, he learns the true reason for the memory box; it is especially for Gramps who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. …

Addie is super tall and super smart. Joe is gay. Skeezie is sloppy and tough looking, and Bobbie, the narrator, is overweight and vulnerable since the death of his mother. They’ve been friends for years and hold a forum once a week to talk about important things. Although they’ve been called names all their lives, they have had one another for support. For their seventh-grade election, they form a new political party, called the No-Name Party whose slogan is, “Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will break …

Lily and Salma are best friends. They play together and stick together through thick and thin. But who would have ever thought that ordinary peanut butter or plain old hummus could come between them? Lily and Salma don’t quite understand each other’s tastes, but does that mean they can’t be friends? They understand far better than a lot of gown ups that these things hardly matter and that friendship is the most important thing of all.