Frederick Lipp

Hoping to make Chamnan, a seven-year-old immigrant from Thailand, feel more at home, the owner of a Portland, Maine, bakery invites him and his grandfather to hear her bread sing.

Sophy longs with all of her heart to attend school, but it is too far away to walk without running shoes. When a kind stranger sends her a pair of shoes, Sophy doesn't waste any time running all 8 kilometers straight to the school. She is the only girl and the boys ridicule her, but once given the opportunity, Sophy is determined to realize her dream. Lovely paintings evoke Sophy's spirit and the beauty of the Cambodian countryside.

Shanti lives in the mountains of Sri Lanka with her mother, Amma, who works hard every day picking tea leaves. Before walking to school one day, Shanti asks her mother for her wishes. "I wish you good luck, and may you be surprised by what you learn," says Amma. Shanti's wish come true when her Uncle Nochi takes her to see the Indian Ocean.

Ary, a young Cambodian girl, saves her money to buy a caged bird from the bird lady on which Ary makes a wish for her poor family's future and then sets free so it will carry her wishes into the open sky.