Newbery Medal–winning author of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler E.L. Konigsburg brings “her offhand humor and her perceptive empathy” (Kirkus Reviews) to this illustrated middle grade short story collection of everyday worries.

What do you do when your mother makes you invite the most obnoxious kid in your class to your birthday party? Or when you have to wait another thirty-three and a third years to see a shower of stars? Or your parents ship you off to fat camp? Or you have to share your private lunch hour with a girl who’s mean to you just because of the color of your skin?

E. L. Konigsburg’s witty and affecting short stories show four young people weather unusual, even uncomfortable, situations and, in the process, learn something that changes their lives.