Auch, Mary Jane

After a daring escape from the animal shelter, Pearl, Peppy, and K-10--so named because he is one step above all the other canines--explore the outside world while moving from one adventure to another.

This barnyard version of the Cinderella story features a mild-mannered chicken, a fashion-conscious Fairy Goosemother, and a prince at a Fowl Ball.

When Henrietta becomes the first chicken in her coop to learn how to read, she uses her skills to save her aunties from becoming chicken soup.

When Brian takes care of the third-grade class's pet chicken during Christmas vacation, Arful, his talking dog, has his paws full watching over it.

When Noah tells Lester the Aardvark that he is too late to board the ark, Lester refuses to give up and tries to trick Noah into letting him on.

Having been kicked off the third grade soccer team, Brian challenges them to a match against his own team, a team which he and his cousin Angel hasten to create and whip into shape--if possible.

Twelve-year-old Grady and his mother relocate yet again, this time finding work taking care of an elderly man, who teaches Grady about cars, birds, and what it means to have a home.

After losing his hand in an accident in his father's butcher shop in 1946, sixth-grader Norman uses hard work and humor to learn to live with his disability and to succeed at baseball, art, and other activities.

Henrietta the chicken loves to read so much that she decides to write a book herself, but she has trouble finding someone to publish a book written by a chicken, and then, when she publishes it herself and it gets a terrible review in "The Corn Book," Henrietta is devastated.

In 1817, after her mother has died and her father abandoned his children, thirteen-year-old Mem searches for a new home for Joshua, herself, and their little sister.