Ellie May wants to the class flag leader but she hasn’t been picked yet. She sets her sights on being the class flag leader on President’s Day. This books follows along has Ellie May plots and plans ways to get her teacher’s attention. After many distractions and mishaps, perhaps now is the time for Ellie to be picked.

Lottie has a secret that no one knows. Lottie takes swim lessons but she never enters the pool. Along comes Walter and he helps Lottie realized that she does have courage.

Nugget convinces Fang to attend Mini Minnows Elementary school with him. Fang isn’t comfortable at school. He wants nothing more than to go home. Then the teacher ask Fang to share with the class. Fang couldn’t think of anything to share until he spotted Nugget.

SumoKitty is about a stray kitty that is looking for food and warm home. He follows Sumo wrestles home. When he proves his worth by catching a mouse, he earns his place. Over time he gets fat and the mice come back but he is out of shape. The sumo wrestlers teach SumoKitty patience and moves to catch the mice.

In this book, the author included the Japanese words for the wrestling moves.

Cake builds a fort that Monkey is not allowed in. When it is done, Monkey tells Cake about his fort.

Stink’s parents won a sleepover at the aquarium for the family. Stink has never had a successful sleepover. With his friends and an aquarium guide, Stink gets to visit many parts of the aquarium. At the end of the tour, his group had a “campfire” and Ms. D tells them a scary story. As everyone settles down to sleep, Stink is wide awake. After pranking his sister, Judy and doing some snooping around in the dark, Stink was finally able to fall asleep.

Knock Knock is a hilarious book about Bear settling down for his long winter nap. His friends have a different idea. Enjoy the jokes!

Dragons love tacos. Dragons love parties. Dragons love taco parties. But there is something that dragons don’t like. It may ruin the party.

A quaint book reminding children, especially girls to be who they are but a nice reminder to the adult that is reading it. Beautifully illustrated emphasis the message.

Frank Li, the main character, is a son of Korean immigrants. Frank’s parents left Korea with a group of other young couples who have continued to keep in touch, meeting monthly for dinners. Frank and the other children of these couples feel as though their parents are keeping all of them within a bubble. Franks parents wish for him to find a nice, Korean girl to date and marry; they are not accepting of any other type of girl. Frank falls for a white girl named Brit, with who he has much in common. Frank knows his parents will not be accepting of this relationship, so he makes an arrangement with one of the daughters of his family’s Korean friends to pretend to date, all the while hiding his true relationship with Brit. What Frank fails to mention this detail to Brit; embarrassed to have racist parents, he tries to juggle the fake relationship along side his real one, bringing a lot of confusion and secrets.

This is a coming of age story, where the characters are trying to define themselves and learn about love along the way. Written with humor and a witty cast of characters, I highly recommend this book.