In the journal she is keeping for English class, sixteen-year-old Tish chronicles the changes in her life when her abusive father abandons her and her brother, and her mother follows him.
Jake Drake sets out to save his reputation when a run of good luck at school draws the unwanted praise of his teachers, giving the other kids the idea that he is teacher's pet.
When he decides to turn his fifth-grade teacher's love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control.
Jackie, who has always had trouble in school, begins to develop more self-confidence under the guidance of her fourth-grade teacher and is crushed when Ms. Sugarman is promoted to principal in the middle of the school year.
