Narrator Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped seven years earlier when she was a 19-year-old college student, celebrate his fifth birthday. They live in a tiny, 11-foot-square soundproofed cell in a converted shed in the kidnapper's yard. The sociopath, whom Jack has dubbed Old Nick, visits at night, grudgingly doling out food and supplies. But Ma, as Jack calls her, proves to be resilient and resourceful--and attempts a nail-biting escape.

A little creature tries and tries to do something special for his mother but something always seems to go wrong.

A little bird asks animals, planes, and boats, "Are you my mother?" until he finds his own mother.

Three baby owls awake one night to find their mother gone, and wonder where she is. They greet her return with joyous celebration.

A little rabbit who wants to run away tells his mother how he will escape, but she is always right behind him.

A mother reflects on the all the milestones, from walking in a deep wood to holding someone else's hand, that her child will achieve during life.

Baby Hippo is in such a rush to play one morning he forgets to kiss his mama, but strangely all the jungle noises seem to remind him.

"Gloria Stanton and her children have disappeared! To protect her children, Gloria left everything behind-her home, her family and her friends. She started a whole new life with a new name, a new background-and a new understanding of the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through it all she had absolute faith that her greatest responsibility was her children."--from publisher's description.

On the telephone to her son, a mother promises the many ways she will come to rejoin him, traveling by hot air balloon, camel, cheetah, and shark.

Little Fish has all sorts of fishy friends in his underwater home, but loves one of them most of all.