STEP

STEP introduces complex social issues with nuance and layered emotion, but the stories are simply written and tightly paced. In each story a child around the world turns eleven and takes a step into their future, each one changed in ways both big and small.

Annoyed at having to walk his sister's dog on his birthday, Connor heads into an undeveloped subdivision, where he comes across chilling evidence of a stranger's unhappiness. A girl sneaks away from her class camping trip to a local conservation area and experiences, for the first time, the terror and joy of fending for herself for the first time. Dom's brother gives him a special crystal to boost his confidence, and the gift conjures up a child laborer from the impoverished area of Madagascar where the stones were mined. And on an historic bridge in Budapest, Lazlo's dream of the perfect father-son birthday outing becomes a nightmare when his father introduces him to his Neo-Nazi friends.