Covering a range of topics from a child's perspective of receiving a new unwanted sibling to the death of an elderly parent, these sometimes humorous/sometimes heartbreaking slice-of-life portraits have something to say to everyone. Many of the stories in this eclectic collection have appeared in literary journals, and "Stars," which portrays a child learning about death via the suicide of a family friend, was the recipient of the South Carolina Fictions Writer's award.