Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Two Kentucky girls, Ivy June Mosley of Thunder Creek and Catherine Combs of Lexington, are participating in their schools' seventh-grade student exchange program. Taking turns, each girl leaves home for two weeks to live and attend classes with the other, and writes about the experience in a journal. In some ways, the girls are worlds apart. Ivy June lives up in the mountains with her grandparents, Mammaw and Papaw Mosley, because it's so crowded...

"When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs"--Title verso page.

When mean and angry Judd, who has never known kindness, takes to drinking and mistreats his dogs, Marty discovers how deep a hurt can go and how long it takes to heal.

Despite a New Year's resolution to be nice to their neighbors the Malloy girls, the Hatford boys find themselves continuing their rivalry and war of practical jokes.

"A coming-of-age novel about a boy whose daily life is difficult because he stutters but who discovers enormous courage when he goes on heart-pounding cave adventures"-- Provided by publisher.

Seventh grader Alice decides that the only way to stave off personal and social disasters is to be part of the crowd, especially the "in" crowd, no matter how boring and, potentially, difficult.

Things start looking up for Emily and Jackson when Emily's inheritance clears and Aunt Hilda becomes her legal guardian and offers to become Jackson's, as well, but Uncle Victor reappears, willing to do anything to steal Emily's fortune.

Fourth-grader Alice tries unsuccessfully to avoid embarrassing mistakes and to establish better relations with her older brother Lester. Can someone die of embarrassment? Everything seems to go wrong for Alice: whether it's being seen in her underpants by Donald Sheavers from next door or saying dumb things in class. Worst of all, she's managed to get Lester really mad at her. Will life ever get any easier? Fourth grade can't end soon enough for Alice!...

While traveling to her aunt's home in Redbud by train and stagecoach, quiet young Emily and her turtle, Rufus, team up with Jackson, fellow orphan and troublemaker extraordinaire, to outsmart mean Uncle Victor, who is after Emily's inheritance.

While planning a wedding as part of an assignment for her eighth-grade health class, Alice thinks about her father's and older brother's love lives and learns that you cannot prepare for all of life's decisions.