Sixth-graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a Jewish girl, connect in an after school cooking club and bond over food and their mothers' struggles to become United States citizens.

Emily Ann learns about the meaning of Thanksgiving when her family gathers around the dinner table.

Allie West finds it challenging to make new friends and stay true to old ones as she navigates fifth grade at a school run by her mother.

Pete describes the family vacation in Maine with the Tubmans, highlighted by the antics of his younger brother Fudge.

The whole family joins in a lively small-town celebration of Independence Day, including a parade, a picnic, music, and fireworks. An author's note explains the origin of the celebration of July 4th.

After second-grader Stink gets an unsatisfactory grade in physical education, his parents tell him he must play a sport and so he masters thumb wrestling, as seen on a sports channel.

Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.

Growing up, Jeremiah is puzzled by racially-motivated gun violence in and beyond his community but when he is ready to talk about it, he learns hopeful forms of activism and advocacy. Includes a discussion guide by the Muhammad Ali Center.

Ten-year-old Zoe Elias, who longs to play the piano but must resign herself to learning the organ, instead, finds that her musicianship has a positive impact on her workaholic mother, her jittery father, and her school social life.

Birdie Gaux's dog, Bowser, considers himself in charge of security at 19 Gentilly Lane, so when the house is broken into Bowser wants to find the man with the limeade aftershave (and the cat) responsible--but nobody seems to know what the culprits were looking for, or why a strange girl is asking questions about Birdie's father, a policeman who was killed in the line of duty years before Bowser was adopted.