Every Sunday, Leo and his family gather at Nonna's house for lunch. Everyone is hungry for Nonna's delicious homemade pasta ...except Leo, who'd rather play. But when Nonna passes around the bowls of soup with stellini – small, star-shaped noodles – she also serves the start of a story. Leo eats his lunch as he listens to the tale, which cleverly features that week's noodle shape, and over the next few weeks Leo and the whole family grow hungrier...

Penny instantly loves the doll her grandmother sends her, but finding the perfect name for her is a challenge.

Polly Milton's cheerful temperament and courage enable her to make friends quickly during her stay in the city.

Portrays the experiences of a young Jewish girl and her family as they are forced to leave Hitler's Germany to seek refuge in neighboring countries.

Dubbed a "reluctant reader" by his teacher, twelve-year-old Derek spends summer vacation learning important lessons even though he does not complete his summer reading list.

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

Selected as a contestant in an online competition to find the World's Greatest Kid, Zeke Stahls decides to give it his best shot but soon finds himself wondering what "great" really means and who gets to decide

"It's 1951, and twelve-year-old Pete Collison is a regular kid in Brooklyn, New York, who loves Sam Spade detective books and radio crime dramas. But when an FBI agent shows up at Pete's doorstep, accusing Pete's father of being a Communist, Pete is caught in a real-life mystery. Could there really be Commies in Pete's family?"--

"When a young girl is asked where she's from--where she's really from--she's no longer as she was. She decides to turn to her dear abuelo for some help with this ever-persistent question. But he doesn't quite give her the answer she expects."--Page [2] of cover. "own voices"

Writing poetry helps fifth-grader Harper Lee Morgan cope with her father's absence, being evicted, and having to skip school to care for her brother while their mother works, and things look even brighter after she befriends a mute girl and a kindly disabled woman.