"When Stella gets the sudden idea to go caroling, she has a little trouble getting someone to join her. Her brother, Frank, is not good at spontaneity. The Watsons are very involved in a precarious fruitcake attempt (but happy to send their pig, Mercy, out for the occasion). Eugenia Lincoln declines, a bit rudely, to accompany on her accordion, and Horace Broom is too busy studying planetary movement. Will Stella need to sing by herself--with enthusiastic...

Mirha questions her name after her classmates continually pronounce it wrong on the first day of school so her mother helps her to learn the significance of her name and to be proud of it.

A wicked queen casts a spell over her beautiful stepdaughter, turning her into a loathsome dragon until such time as her wandering brother shall return and kiss her three times.

Lyle is perfectly happy living with the Primms on East 88th St. until irritable Mr. Grumps next door changes all that.

Red's factory-applied label clearly says that he's red, but despite the best efforts of his teacher, fellow crayons and art supplies, and family members, he can't seem to do anything right until a new friend offers a fresh perspective.

Because she has been very ill and weak, River cannot join in the dancing at this year's tribal powwow, she can only watch from the sidelines as her sisters and cousins dance the celebration--but as the drum beats she finds the faith to believe that she will recover and dance again.

A girl tells what it is like living with her twin brother who has autism and sometimes finds it hard to communicate with words, but who, in most ways, is just like any other boy. Includes authors' note about autism.

In a series of amusing comparisons, a boy shows how humans are much more like each other than we are like any other thing on Earth.

When Halloween comes around, pumpkins are turned into pumpkin heads of different kinds and greet trick-or-treaters.

"Quinn spent the morning in their workshop, and they emerged with Something Great! But. What is it? Then, the new kid asks to play with Quinn and Something Great. They discover that Something Great can be an elevator, a bug catcher, or a stick lifter. Itcould even be a friend finder"--