Allie loves everything about volleyball except hitting. She doesn't think she's good at it, and every time she messes up, her belief in her own abilities dwindles. Finally, she asks for help. Her idol, Nikki, agrees to coach her once a week. If Allie can learn to spike as well as she blocks, she could become one of the team's strongest players.

Twelve-year-old Ava finds an old pencil in her family's junk drawer and discovers, during a math test, that it will answer factual questions, so she and her best friend Sophie have a great time--and Ava grows in self-confidence--until the pencil reveals a truth about her family that Ava would rather not know.

Even though they know better, Abby, Sara, and Jill decide to try surfing with a hurricane approaching and must rely on someone else to help them.

As his own self-confidence grows, seventh-grader Dunk learns to be supportive both on and off the basketball court when his friend Jared goes through a difficult time, even though Jared's failure would provide Dunk more opportunities to prove himself.

"The sequel to the critically acclaimed Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus follows Aven Green as she confronts yet another challenge: high school. Just as Aven starts to feel comfortable in Stagecoach Pass, with her friends and schoolmates accustomed to her lack of "armage," everything changes once again. She's about to begin high school...with 2,300 new kids to stare at her. And no matter how much Aven tries to play it cool, nothing prepares...

"Natalie has just arrived at summer camp and soon realizes it isn't anything like the brochure. Instead of spending the summer with her best friends, Zoe and Flo, Natalie is stuck with her ex-BFF, Lily, and someone even more annoying than the endless mosquitoes: Millie Flatbottom. Even worse, she's constantly pushed out of her comfort zone and forced to come face-to-face with some of her greatest fears. Although summer camp isn't at all what Natalie...

Jenny loves swimming, and her best friend has finally convinced her to join the school swim team--but when she is confronted by a crowd of spectators in competition she freezes up.

When eighth grade basketball player Shaena suffers a concussion in a game, she finds herself sidelined two weeks before the big game--and as she watches her team practice with the new freshman player, Shaena, who is used to being the star, starts to worry that by the time she recovers she will no longer be needed.

Lily Davis's big sister and star soccer player, Jana, has left home for basic training, and now Lily's parents and coach want her to change positions, from goalie to striker, wear Jana's jersey, and fill her sister's shoes--at first she goes along with the switch, until a letter from Jana gives her the courage to tell them all that she is her own person, and that person is a goalie.

Seventh-grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it, and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a...