As the end of sixth grade nears, Jordan Johnson, unhappy that she is only average in appearance, intelligence, and athletic ability, reveals her special skills when disaster strikes her central Illinois elementary school.

Twelve-year-old identical twins Jay and Ray have long resented that everyone treats them as one person, and so they hatch a plot to take advantage of a clerical error at their new school and pretend they are just one.

In this humorous retelling of a Perrault tale, the fairy Ethelinda rewards one twin sister for good behavior and punishes the other for bad, only to discover that her punishment is more pleasing than her reward.

A sympathetic teacher and her writing assignment help fourth-grader Dexter deal with being the new kid in school after he punches a kid on the first day.

In this humorous retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The princess and the pea, Lorelei must pass many difficult tests in order to prove that she is a true princess and win the hand of Prince Nicholas.

As letters flow back and forth--between the prairies of Illinois and the mountains of Afghanistan, across cultural and religious divides--sixth-grader Abby, ten-year-old Amira, and eleven-year-old Sadeed begin to speak and listen to each other.