Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Alice experiences the joys and embarrassments of seventh grade while advising her father and older brother on their love lives.

Are Beth and Josh really in love or just pretending to be in order to spy and continue the feud between the Malloy sisters and the Hatford brothers?

When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

During the summer between eighth and ninth grades, Alice and her friends Pamela and Elizabeth decide to improve themselves through exercise.

Alice's first year in high school gets off to a difficult start when she and her boyfriend Patrick break up, but with the help of her father, older brother, and best friends, she gains a better sense of her own self-worth.

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

"Marty and his best friend Shiloh are on another adventure. Marty learns when a secret is too dangerous to keep, and that hate can spread like fire"--

The Malloy girls and the Hatford boys try to outdo each other in a quest to earn money and choose how to participate in the annual Buckman, West Virginia, Strawberry Festival.

To prove themselves worthy of succeeding Texas Jake as leader of the feline Club of Mysteries, cat brothers Marco and Polo agree to bring him the comfrey that will heal his wounds.

Once again the Hatford brothers and the Malloy sisters find themselves pitted against each other when embarrassing pictures of the boys turn up in the girls' basement, and the boys try to figure out how to get them back.