Maryellen Larkin is nine years old and longs to stand out, but in a family with five brothers and sisters it's easy to get lost in the shuffle! This is the first volume of Maryellen's stories about growing up in the 1950s.

When the surf's up, she pops out her hearing aid, hops on her board and paddles out to the lineup. Joss is stoked to enter a surfing video contest with her friend Sofia and Murph, the surfing bulldog. If she can master a killer aerial like the frontside air and get her brother Dylan to catch it on video, maybe she'd even have a shot at winning. But Dylan throws her a curve: he dares her to try out for the cheer team. No way--Joss can't see herself...

Instructions for amusements one could teach friends or family, including reading a palm, eating with chopsticks, doing the hula, making a coin disappear, making a French braid, learning basic sign language, and throwing a football.

"In her third story, Luciana and her family are headed to Chile for winter break. Luci can't wait to see her cousins - but the reunion doesn't go as planned, and Luci feels like an outsider in her own family. Just then she receives a surprise invite from Claire Jacobs, her frenemy from astronaut training camp, to join her at the Mars habitat in the desert and watch NASA scientists at work. It's an offer too good to refuse, so Luci decides to leave...

"Meet Blaire Wilson! She's a creative girl with bold ideas and a big heart. Chef. Decorator. Chicken wrangler. Blaire does it all at her family's restaurant, inn and farm. Her recent food allergy has made her time in the kitchen--and the time with friends-- a little tough. But now she's got the perfect distraction--a wedding to plan! With her BFF by her side, and a million creative ideas saved on her tablet, Blaire is sure she can make the farm's...

"A goat that does tricks. A lamb in pajamas. A celebrity who offers Blaire the opportunity of a lifetime. Things are never boring at Pleasant View Farm! Things get interesting at school, too. Blaire's determined to find a BIG idea for the Community Service Challenge. Her project becomes personal when she befriends a young girl at the local food pantry. With a love of cooking and a farm full of fresh ingredients, Blaire soon has a plan for making a...

When Samantha's tenth birthday party is spoiled by the boy next door, Aunt Cornelia and her young twin sisters try to ease Samantha's disappointment by inviting her and Grandmary to visit them in New York City.

Nine-year-old Addy Walker escapes from a cruel life of slavery to freedom during the Civil War.

While her father is away fighting in World War II, Molly finds her life full of change as she eats terrible vegetables from the victory garden and plans revenge on her brother for ruining her Halloween.

Now that the yellow fever epidemic is over, the people of New Orleans raise money to care for the orphans, and Cécile seeks to discover something special she can to do help.