A child learns that there are consequences for thoughtless behavior, from feeding popcorn to a bear at the zoo to dropping an empty can out of a car window.

Illustrations and rhyming text urge children to use their teeth for biting food, not their friends or relatives.

"Sophie has discovered the perfect name this time, for sure: Sophie the Hero! After all, when little Ella ran out into the street in front of a car, Sophie swooped in to save the day. If that's not heroic, what is? But being a hero might be tougher than this third-grader expected. She's supposed to save the day--not cause more trouble! Could Sophie's latest name be a heroic flop?"--P. [4] of cover.

Louie and Ralphie Ratso's dad, Big Lou, always says that there are two kinds of people: those who are tough and those who are soft. Louie and Ralphie are tough, tough, tough, just like Big Lou, and they're going to prove it. But every time they try to show just how tough they are, the Ratso brothers end up accidentally doing good deeds instead. What'll Big Lou do when he finds out they ve been acting like softies all over the Big City?

With the big game coming up, Mo Jackson, the shortest member of the basketball team, is determined to learn how to pass the ball in time to help his team win.

Laura and her family move to Minnesota where they live in a dugout until a new house is built and face misfortunes caused by flood, blizzard, and grasshoppers.

Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

Determined to recover the Adomal and to prevent the pirate Zavac from doing more damage, Hal and his brotherband crew persue Zavac to the lawless fortress of Ragusa where, if Hal is to succeed, he will have to go beyond his brotherband training and face the pirate one-on-one in a fight to the finish.

"Ally's greatest fear is that everyone will find out she is as dumb as they think she is because she still doesn't know how to read"--

While Logan and his friends, leaders of the Markless revolution, face Chancellor Cylis's army, the Dust seeks a cure for an epidemic sweeping through the Marked, Logan's sister Lily's allegiance remains unclear, and climatic changes become ever more threatening.