Giff, Patricia Reilly

Each student in Ms. Rooney's room celebrates the December holidays by being a secret pal to a classmate.

Richard Best finds a ruler in his desk that he believes has magic powers, but he gets worried when things start to go too right.

Text in Spanish. Summer for Richard Best, nicknamed Beast, means facing summer school and losing his best friend, who is moving to a distant state.

As Valentine's Day approaches and her class becomes busy making cards, Emily is worried about her fight with Sherri, who tells her, "You'll be sorry.".

Emily Arrow determines to get the most fish in the library's Fish for a Good Book contest but she doesn't take into account the equal determination of Dawn Bosco.

Text in Spanish. With the help of the meanest substitute teacher in the whole school, Richard "Beast" Best learns a lesson about fear.

At the close of the school year, Emily thinks about the fun she has had with her classmates.

Richard wants to win the Thanksgiving Candy Corn contest by guessing the number of candies in the jar but before he realizes what he's done, he eats three big pieces. What will happen when Ms. Rooney finds out.

"Charlie has lots of ideas. Need something to go sky high? Ah-ha! The zinger-winger! Need to launch a cheese popper into soup? The amazing popper-upper! But the zinger-winger zings more than wings, and the popper-upper plops. Charlie isn't allowed to invent for a week. Meanwhile, the afterschool invention fair is coming up. He needs time to make something special. Good thing he has his friends and Mr. Redfern, another inventor, to help him out"--.

Marilyn describes how much different life will be next year when she is in the second grade.