Claudia Mills

Annika hopes to change her best friends' hatred of math by winning a Sudoku contest, but she does not realize how important their lack of mathematical ability is until they make a mistake at the school carnival.

Nixie and Grace have been best and only friends since preschool, but now Nixie must attend an after-school cooking camp while Grace spends her afternoons with classmate Elyse.

Third-grader Wilson struggles with his times-tables in order to beat the class deadline.

"Boogie Bass feels his best friend, Nolan, is better than he at everything, even caring for Boogie's little brothers, but an after-school camp reveals Boogie's talent at communicating using American Sign Language. Includes facts about ASL"--Title verso page.

Nine-year-old Mason's parents keep trying to get him a pet, but until he and his best friend Brody adopt a three-legged dog, he's not interested.

"Sixth grader Betsy is the one who informs her best friend, Lizard, that thousands of the world's languages are currently threatened by extinction; Betsy's mother is a linguistics professor working frantically to study dying languages before they are lost forever. But it is Lizard who, gripped by the magnitude of this loss, challenges Betsy, "What if, instead of WRITING about dying languages, like your mom, you and I SAVED one instead?" As the girls...

Fourth-grader Mason struggles to enjoy playing basketball after his best friend persuades him to join a team, and learns that the dog-hating lady next door is not so bad after all.

"Twelve-year-old Autumn wants more than anything to be a real author, but when she wins a contest by writing something too personal about her brother, she has to decide if her dreams are more important than their relationship"-- Provided by publisher.

When fifth-grade twins, Amy and Todd, tackle a school project, they also have to cope with issues of friendship at school and problems at home, including their father's unemployment.

Twelve-year-old Maggie comes to dread biology class because her favorite teacher is insisting that she dissect a worm, an assignment that makes her feel very squeamish and awakens her to the question of animal rights.