Ayira

Written for middle-grade readers, this chapter book follows Ayira, whose family is relocating to a new home. Her cherished stuffed animals are riding in the moving truck when it tips over on a slick road, and they vanish in the wreckage, leaving her heartbroken. Each toy carries meaning for her background: a puma stands for Mexico, a chipmunk for Japan, and a red fox for the state she is leaving. Watching a shooting star cross her window, she wishes with all her heart to see them again. Her devotion works a kind of magic. The toys become living animals that can talk, and they set out to find the girl who loves them. Once they locate Ayira in her new house, they decide the mountains nearby would be a safer place for them to live.

Ayira makes the trip to visit them nearly every weekend. On one of these weekends she is working toward becoming a Junior Ranger, and part of the test is spending a night alone in the wilderness. Beside her campfire she holds a special egg and promises her animal friends they will stay together always. The flames rise high, the animals turn into smoke, and Ayira breathes it in and collapses.

The next day, while searching for a missing Junior Ranger, she realizes she has gained the special abilities of each of her animal companions. After a bold rescue, she rides the bus home and silently thanks her animals as she thinks about the new life ahead, shaped by the mix of talents she now carries.