Katherine Applegate

During a Southern California wildfire, a wary stray dog named Wombat and a serious nine-year-old named Henry find each other, and while Henry isn't ready to take her home, Wombat waits at the shelter and comforts others who have lost everything.

Odder, a playful young sea otter off the California coast, has her life upended by an encounter with a great white shark. The book draws on real otters rescued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Kek, a young Sudanese refugee resettled in Minnesota after losing much of his family, adjusts to a new country, language and cold climate while searching for his missing mother.