Willey, Margaret

As Christmas approaches, Clever Beatrice sets out to prove the existence of Pere Noel to three questioning children.

Through her love of music and membership in her brother's band, sixteen-year-old Lisa learns to deal with her feelings of abandonment following her mother's death.

As a young girl waits for her six uncles to arrive for Thanksgiving, she asks her mother to describe life with these brothers on past Thanksgivings.

Through journal entries required by their social worker at a juvenile detention center, middle-schoolers Katie, Nate, and Renata relate how they came to kidnap their tormentor, Chase, a star athlete from the town's most prominent family, who surprisingly became their willing victim.

Goldilocks, ignoring her father's warning not to rush in where she does not belong, enters a cabin in the woods, cleans it to meet her standards, plucks from the porridge items unappealing to her before eating a bowlful, and falls asleep on the bed that suits her best.