Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

Forced to live on the streets of New York after his mother disappears from their hotel room, eleven-year-old Clay is befriended by two men who help him survive.

When her father enters the hospital to have open-heart surgery, ten-year-old Emma is sent to Peconic Bay to live with her tormented aunt and finds the experience painful until she meets a friend who suggests making a miniature village in the sand.

Born to nomadic and bohemian parents who rarely had time for her, the author presents a portrait of her childhood, detailing her many homes, from an orphanage in Manhattan to a sugar plantation in Cuba.

An eleven-year-old shoots a stray cat with his new air rifle, subsequently suffers from guilt, and eventually assumes responsibility for it.

Looks at the traces left behind by a turtle on the sand, a jet in the sky, and even a long-gone dinosaur in loose soil.

Eight-year-old Maurice's struggle to protect his bedroom full of treasured "junk" from unsympathetic parents undergoes a transformation when the family moves to the country.

"A radiant reflection of contemporary fiction at its best, The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006 features stories from locales as diverse as Russia, Zimbabwe, and the rural American South. Series editor Laura Furman considered thousands of stories in hundreds of literary magazines before selecting the winners, which are accompanied here by short essays from each of the three eminent jurors on his or her favorite story, as well as observations from all twenty...