When Shant? is sent to find black-eyed peas for her family's New Year's celebration, she learns about each of her neighbor's New Year's traditions in their home countries.
A young boy agrees to give a disgusting monster first his soccer ball, then his bike in return for eating the boy's peas, but when the monster asks for his puppy, the boy makes a surprising discovery.
Maya and other students in Ms. Hopkins class study techniques used by Thomas Jefferson as they grow pea plants and compete to see whose will produce a bowl full of peas first. Includes an afterword about Jefferson.