Amy Goldman Koss

Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even thrives.

Each of the girls in a middle-school clique reveals the strong, manipulative hold one of the group exerts on the others, and the hurt and self-doubt that it causes them.

Marla, the only Jewish student in her fourth-grade class, wishes she celebrated Christmas like her best friend Lucy, until one year when she decides to learn all about Hanukkah and to teach her family about it too.

Jacki, a ninth-grader, does not understand when her teacher talks about unemployment and recession, until her mother loses her job and Jacki cannot buy the things she wants.

When Sarah gets her hands on the answers to the eighth-grade geography midterm and decides to share them with some other students, the consequences are far-ranging.