Short Story by John Edgar Wideman. An African-American man reflects on whether the experiences of his great-great-great-grandmother, a slave who escaped with the son of her owner and their two illegitimate children and founded a new community in a remote corner of Pittsburgh, should mitigate his brother’s incarceration for murder.
Short Story by A. B. Paterson. Despite the title, this story is about boys and their toys (men and their cars). Much of it involves the exploits of a speed-loving chauffeur, who tries to catch a car that has left the biggest set of tyre/tire tracks he has ever seen.
Novelette by Dorothy Sayers. While browsing an antiquarian bookshop, a ten-year-old boy is attracted to the maps and pictures in a badly damaged volume. He buys it, leading to a “Boys Own” type adventure involving attempted robbery, Scotland Yard and a riddle leading to buried pirate treasure.
Grade 3-4 Story by Rudyard Kipling. A British family adopts a young Indian mongoose that has been separated from its family by a devastating flood. He repays their kindness by saving their lives, first killing a deadly krait and then bravely facing two large cobras who threaten them.
Quick Read by Fredrick Brown. The people of Earth and Mars have planned an exchange of gifts. Each civilization is more advanced in an important area of science and can do much to help the other. Earth’s first “gift”, delivered in an unmanned spacecraft, is not what the Martians expected.