Kristen Tracy

The pressure is on for middle-schooler Bessica to be the funniest, wildest bear mascot for her school, or risk being humiliated by a rival tiger mascot.

"A bear cub emerges in the spring when everything he sees is new and interesting, and grows up (a little) as the seasons pass until when winter comes, and he returns to his mother's den to sleep until spring comes again."--

Ten-year-old Camille McPhee relates the ups and downs of her fourth-grade year at her Idaho elementary school as she tries to adjust to the absence of her best friend, maintain control of her low-blood sugar, cope with the intensifying conflict between her parents, and understand the importance of honesty and fairness.

Tess Whistle is a high school junior with ridiculous problems. But her problems are not catastrophes, because she is about to discover that even though things might seem ridiculous to her, she is finding out exactly who it is that she wants to be.

When a wrong number blossoms into a phone friendship for Lucy and James, two Vermont high school students, James wants to meet in person, but Lucy is strangely resistant. Told in the form of telephone calls and voice mail messages.

Eleven-year-old Bessica's plans to begin North Teton Middle School as a new person begin to fall apart even before school begins.