Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Often left alone on their five-acre Mississippi farm by her traveling-salesman father, Ellen learns, through a terrifying experience, to distinguish between real and false fears.

Kevin wants to go to the playground, but he can't when Sammy the bully is there. After asking his father for advice, Kevin gets up his courage and goes to face Sammy.

When mean and angry Judd, who has never known kindness, takes to drinking and mistreats his dogs, Marty discovers how deep a hurt can go and how long it takes to heal.

Ashamed of his wimpy younger cousin, eight-year-old Jimmy is determined to keep him out of his special club for rough, tough, and terrible boys, until an accident involving Jimmy's father demonstrates for him the true meaning of courage.

The summer before eighth grade, Alice tries to confront her fears, not the least of which is a fear of deep water.

When thirteen-year-old Chrissa is sent to her paternal grandmother's farm, she learns more about her absent father and some of the reasons for her distant relationship with her mother.

Beset by an enemy from within, Dan searches for the gypsies he once knew in York and is led inexplicably into a calamity involving the Black Death in a hostile country among frightened and superstitious people.

Eighth-grader Alice has lots of questions about sex, relationships, prejudice, and change.

Andy's entering the fifth-grade essay contest stirs his imagination to creative heights as he competes with his know-it-all cousin by making recipes with some unusual food sources and testing them on unaware friends and family.

A teenager in a large family that lives in a trailer yearns for love, approval, an escape from endless chores, and a chance to make something of herself. When a good and decent man, seven years her senior, falls in love with her, she realizes marriage to him could solve her problems.