Claudia Mills

Afraid he will always be an outsider like ex-planet Pluto, nine-year-old Oliver finally shows his extremely overprotective parents that he is capable of doing great things without their help while his class is studying the solar system.

Twelve-year-old Julius has his hands full over the summer when his mother attempts to improve his grades and teach him responsibility by signing him up for a French class and getting him a job babysitting.

While trying to decide on a science fair project, third-grader Wilson struggles with with fractions and, much to his embarrassment, his parents sign him up to work with a math tutor.

Todd and Amy Davidson may be twins, but they're complete opposites — Todd is organized and is the family "engineer," while Amy is outgoing and has been dubbed the "poet." So it would seem that for a fifth-grade economics project, Todd would come up with a master invention, and Amy would have a blast with her best friends as partners. To their surprise, Todd can't think of a single idea, and Amy gets stuck working with the class crybaby. Then Todd...

Ethan Winfield has never been an academic or athletic star like his older brother, Peter. But, does that make him a failure? Of course not. Still, Ethan and his best friend, Julius Zimmerman, decide that they qualify to found an exclusive club: Losers, Inc. No sooner have they done this, however, than both boys fall in love with the new student teacher. Ethan knows right away that to impress Ms. Gunderson he has to excel. Instead of reading the shortest...

Pretty is as pretty does. Pretty, popular Marcia Faitak is not her usual self. Over the summer, she gained five pounds, and when school begins, Marcia, desperate for an invitation from Alex Ryan to the October dance, goes on a diet. In art class, she's supposed to bring a red apple to life on paper, but all she wants to do is eat it. Mr. Morrison doesn't like her work anyway: disdainfully, he calls her drawing of a beautiful girl "Barbie." Worse...

Chelsea learns she is perfectly human. If Chelsea Garing likes anything better than school, it's church, especially when she gets the chance to shine. Unfortunately, Chelsea can't perform perfectly every time. One day, when she's serving as acolyte, her candle lighter unexpectedly goes out. Another day, when she's acting a role from the Good Samaritan story in Sunday school, annoying Danny Repetti plows into her. Why her friend Naomi Goldberg doesn't...

Second-grader Gus wants a store-bought Halloween costume to wear to school, but because he knows his parents do not believe in buying costumes, he turns to his grandfather for help.

Simon Ellis and the rest of the third grade Franklin School Friends participate in a spelling bee where Simon's competitive spirit takes over until he realizes that sometimes the best way to win is to take a chance and let other people shine.

"Cody Harmon loves animals--he even has nine pets--so when the school holds a pet show fundraiser, it should be his time to shine"--