By Julie Brinckloe
A boy fills a jar with fireflies on a summer night, then has to choose between keeping them and letting them live.
It's a summer evening, supper's on the table, and out in the yard the fireflies are rising up out of the grass. The boy grabs a jar, punches holes in the lid, and runs out to catch them with the other children. He's good at it. The jar fills until it glows like a lamp in his hands, and he carries it up to his room and sets it by his bed, proud of himself, holding a piece of summer in glass. Then the light starts to fade. He watches the fireflies bump the glass and sink to the bottom, and he understands that if he keeps them they'll die. So he opens the window and shakes the jar out into the night. The fireflies rise, and he cries and feels glad at the same time.
The whole book builds toward its ending, and children feel it even if they can't say why. He wanted the fireflies. He let them go. He cried and was glad, both at once, and the book never smooths that into a tidy lesson. It's also very short, so a child can hold the whole story in their head and still want to talk about the last page. I'd reach for it with a child who's caught something in a jar themselves; they may recognize the whole feeling.