Anxious to change his "goody-goody" image, eight-year-old Guy is delighted when Isabelle the Itch offers to teach him the art of being a funny pest. Her lessons end up teaching them both what being a tough guy really means.
A lonely eleven-year-old boy living with his grandmother tries to come to terms with the facts of his life as he waits in vain for his divorced mother to take him to live with her.
The meeting between an eleven-year-old boy and Sproggy, his English step-sister who comes to New York City, is less than idyllic, but time, events, and other people help to change that.
Sixteen-year-old Tim thinks he has found the ultimate romantic courtship when he starts sending his secret love anonymous copies of the world's greatest love letters, but he gets unexpected results.
While Al impatiently awaits letters from her father and his new wife and from a boy named Brian, her best friendship is threatened by the arrival of a house guest.
While fighting a losing battle with needlepoint, bangs, and physical nonconformity, Al finds her life further complicated by her father's first visit in years.
A seventh-grade girl, her slightly fat girl friend, Al, and the assistant superintendent of their apartment building form a mutually needed friendship with the usual--and a few unusual--joys and sorrows.
