Short Story by Bobbie Ann Mason. A seemingly happily married man becomes obsessed with finding the soon-to-be eighteen-year-old woman he and his previous wife gave up for adoption at birth. The quest causes him to look up his ex-wife, leading to an affair that may destroy his current marriage.
Quick Read by Colette. A recently married couple visiting a restaurant chance upon the husband’s ex-wife. The self-centered, controlling husband cannot understand why his first wife ended their relationship. The new marriage, in which the younger woman flirtatiously plays the part of a trophy wife, appears more to his liking.
Grade 5-6 Story by J. W. Linn. A lonely philanthropist’s only companion, a young puppy, runs away from home and is taken in by a poor family. As the philanthropist helps with their Christmas preparations, he experiences a special joy that changes the way he thinks about his work.
Short Story by Jose Dalisay Jr. Set during the Philippine’s Marcos dictatorship, a group of soldiers appears and begins remove the vegetables from a school garden. The younger children are sent home, but the oldest (a fourteen-year-old girl) is ordered to stay to “cook and do the soldier’s washing”.
French Folktale. Many of the world’s best-known children’s stories have their origins in folklore. Charles Perrault took a folktale framework that had been around since the days of the pharaohs, and added the three elements for which the story is famous today: a fairy godmother, pumpkin-carriage, and glass slippers.