Green, D. L

Ten-year-old Shelby Bloom's family has just moved from Ohio to Los Angeles where she will be forced to share a room with her eleven-year-old sister Lila (ugh!), and try and make friends in her new school (hopeless, especially for a girl who likes to tell jokes)--but Ajay, the boy across the street has a dog and likes to laugh, and two horse-loving girls (who have never actually ridden a horse) invite her to the local riding stables, and suddenly Los Angeles does not seem so bad after all.

Third-grader Zeke's soccer experience is proving to be a disaster--all of his friends are on a different team, while his team is dominated by a bully who hogs the ball and knocks down anyone who gets in his way.

Zeke wants to bring home the class hamster, so to prove that he is responsible, he promises his mother that he will take care of the family dog for a whole week--after that it is one disaster after another.

Annoyed because his mother has been packing boring, healthy lunches, third-grader Zeke has not made either a card or a gift for Mother's Day--then at the last moment he has a change of heart and has to scramble to make both.

As if coming up with a school project at the last minute is not enough trouble, Zeke also has to deal with his cousin Sam--who is just too perfect to be completely believable.

All the children in the third grade except Zeke Meeks are playing with the newest fad, Puppet Pals finger puppets, but Zeke would rather play basketball than give in to the pressure and join them.

It is Television-Turnoff Week, and Zeke and his friends are wondering what they will do with their time without their favorite programs and videogames.

Third-grader Zeke Meeks needs to win the prize in the science project contest because the class bully is threatening him, but so far all his ideas are ending in messy disasters.

Third-grader Zeke Meeks already has two sisters, so he is bitterly disappointed when his new neighbor proves to be a girl, but she might be able to change his mind and prove to him that boys and girls can play together.

Zeke Meeks will be nine soon, but he is not looking forward to a party that his sisters want to take over and nobody but his closest friends want to attend, but the alternative is going to Grace Chang's party on the same day, and she is really scary.