Sally Derby

Six children aged from kindergarten to the fifth grade share their excitement for the new school year, from meeting new teachers and friends to preparing to leave in the morning. Ethan is nervous about starting Kindergarten. First grader Zach is worried about having to learn everything all over again. Katie finds out that ther second-grade teacher's name starts with "Mr." It turns out that Jackie isn't the only third grader who gets dropped off early...

Kyle, almost thirteen, spends much of the summer yearning to explore a nearby island, striving to be a good brother, fishing with an elderly neighbor, and fuming at his parents over their separation that is forcing his mother to sell the family's cabin on a Michigan lake.

"Did you know that Paul Laurence Dunbar originated such famous lines as "I know why the caged bird sings" and "We wear the mask that grins and lies"? From his childhood in poverty and his early promise as a poet through his struggles to find acceptance as a writer and his tumultuous romance with his wife, to his immense fame and his untimely death, Dunbar's story is one of triumph and tragedy. But his legacy remains in his much-beloved poetry--told...

When Mr. Wuerst, the substitute kindergarten teacher at Merryvale School, drops his glasses into the frying pan one morning, he ends up wearing a dish towel to school instead of his scarf and he mistakes the class gerbils for fur caps.

Blue Bird the bookmobile provides shelter on a snowy Christmas Eve night.