Dear Whiskers by Ann Whitehead Nagda

Dear Sameera,
I am a mouse.
I live in your desk.

When Jenny's fourth grade class is assigned to write letters to second graders, Jenny's a little excited about it.

But then she picks a funny name for her pen pal: Sameera. What kind of a name is Sameera? Jenny's best friend Richard had picked a boy named Eric. Smart, fussy Susan had a pen pal named Daniel. Really nice ordinary names.

Worse, the fourth graders are supposed to pretend to be mice writing the letters. What do mice write letters about? What do mice do? Jenny really hates this part of the project.

And, worst of all, Sameera never writes back! Doesn't she like Jenny's letters? Maybe she thinks "Whiskers" is a dumb name for a mouse. Or maybe she hates Jenny.

Jenny has two choices: try talking to her pen pal, or trade her in for a different second grader. But there's something Jenny doesn't know yet about Sameera...

Surviving Brick Johnson by Laurie Myers

It was a perfectly innocent mistake. In fact, Alex didn't realize it was a mistake until after he'd made it.

See, the guys at the lunch table were doing impressions - Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, that kind of thing. Alex was never quite sure what made him do it, but he did an impression of Brick Johnson, the new transfer student in his class. And everybody laughed.

Everybody except Brick Johnson, that is. Big and mean looking (bigger than skinny Alex, that's for sure!), Brick leaned over the table and said, "At my other school a boy did an imitation of me and..."

And what?!? Alex doesn't know, because a teacher interrupted them right then. And I punched him? And they never saw him again? And I gave him a big hug and a lollipop? (Alex is pretty sure it's not that last one.)

Whatever it might be, Alex is making sure to stay well out of Brick's way - which is tough when it seems that every time he turns around, Brick's in the area. Great! Not even two weeks into his fifth grade year and Alex is already starting to worry that he won't live to be one hundred.

But even while he's running away from Brick, Alex is learning some things about himself and about the other guy that could change the way he thinks about a few things...

Stinky and Successful: The Riot Brothers Never Stop by Mary Amato

Riot Brothers Rule #1 is: Make something exciting happen every day. That rule is #1 because it is the most important - and third-graders Wilbur and Orville Riot make sure never to break it.

They have a Secret Riot Brother Mission Book where they write down their daily missions (that’s rule #16: You have to write down your mission of the day, because of rule #5: You can’t change your mission in the middle of the day). From rescuing a damsel, to winning the yearly April Fool’s Day contest with their mom, to becoming mad scientists, the Riot Brothers never stop finding creative ways to add laughter and fun to the most ordinary situations.

Remember: The world would be a better place if all children had a roof over their head, food in their stomach, a smile in their heart, and a fake rat in their pocket. –Wilbur and Orville Riot

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Just imagine...

You are a girl, an orphan your whole life, who has gone from family to family and finally to an orphanage, helping and living, but never been part of your own family. You have red hair and freckles and are awfully thin, all of which you are sadly aware of and wish could be changed.

Just imagine...

You are taken from the orphanage on a train to a tiny little village in the countryside and told that Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert want to adopt you. But when you arrive at their house, a beautiful spot called Green Gables that just feels like home... you find out they wanted a boy, not a girl.

Just imagine...

For some reason, just for some reason, though you're never quite sure why in particular, Matthew and Marilla decide you will stay with them, in this lovely house with its white-flowered cherry trees, and its cheerful little brook, and the shining lake beneath the bridge.

Just imagine...

You make a perfect friend in Diana Barry, who lives just on the other side of the Haunted Wood, and a perfect enemy in Gilbert Blythe - which is all his fault because he pulled your hair and called you "carrots." And maybe you aren't Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald of Idlewild, but you are Anne Shirley of Green Gables, and that indeed is so ever much better than being Anne Shirley of nowhere-at-all!

Just imagine...