With a friend like Patrick, who needs enemies? Patrick is a showoff and a prankster, and Richard is his usual target. Resolved not to let Patrick get him in trouble, Richard is sucked in by The Mosquito, a way to eat red Jell-O through a straw, and of course trouble ensues. Complications arise when the new girl from France thinks the boys are seriously injured, and miscommunication is all too easy when idioms in English and in French are taken literally. The shifting alliances, interests, and concerns of second-graders are authentically and humorously depicted in this easy-to-read school story.

Sam has made it most of the way through sixth grade, barely able to read and write, but now Sam's family have moved again and he is faced with the prospect of attending a new school. How long will he be able to keep his problem secret?

When his folks host a Vietnamese family that has come to settle in their town, Harvey enjoys Americanizing twelve-year-old Tuan.

Mr. Star broke the news gently. "Well, 4B," he said, "it appears we're going to do it."It was the talk of last year's fourth, especially the part about the catfish between the principal's sheets. It is the good-behavior reward for this year's fourth grade. It is Outdoor Education: three days at Camp Trotter in Wisconsin.From where Hobie Hanson sits — at Central School in Stockton, Illinois — it is bad news. Three days also means two nights, two nights far from home. The thought brings wooly-worms to his stomach and floods his head with what-ifs. As things turn out, however, Outdoor Education lives up to its name, and in ways that neither Hobie nor his friends expect.The class, and sub, that kept readers breathless in Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub are back for another rousing adventure, filled with the sights, sounds, tastes, and, yes, smells familiar to veteran campers everywhere.