Warner, Sally

Third grader EllRay is faced with a problem when his plan to bring his dad's crystals to school in order to impress his classmates does not go accordingly.

When Skye's older brother comes home after a devastating accident, she moves from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to California to live with her grandmother and attend middle school, where she somewhat reluctantly makes new friends, learns to stand up for herself and those she cares about, and begins to craft a new relationship with her changed brother.

When a new girl joins her third-grade class just before Thanksgiving, Emma thinks only about gaining her friendship before the popular Cynthia can, and hurts her best friend Annie Pat's feelings in the process.

Third-grader Emma becomes a reluctant heroine when she defends a friend from the class bully.

When the third-graders compete in the first annual winter games, Emma feels that she must win in order to prove to her father, who is divorced from her mother and lives in England with his new wife, that she is good at something.

Third-grader Emma's peaceful life as an only child is disrupted when she has to temporarily share her tidy bedroom with four-year-old Anthony Scarpetto, a bona fide "pain in the patootie.".