Books in The Kids of the Polk Street School series

Stacy Arrow's first day of school isn't going well at all. She was only trying to help when she told Jiwon, the girl with the black hair, that her drawing of herself looked like a cow. And she didn't mean to scare her with stories about man-eating snakes. Now Jiwon refuses to be Stacy's best friend. What's Stacy doing wrong?"You have to be nice to a friend," says Stacy's sister Emily, and suddenly Stacy knows what she has to do. But can her plan win her a best friend? Snakes or no snakes, Stacy's ready to try her hardest.

February is fun.It's time for everyone in Ms. Rooney's room to make cards for the Valentine box. Emily Arrow couldn't be happier when Dawn Bosco gives her some colored stars to decorate her cards. She plans to make a special one for Ms. Vincent, the new student teacher.But things take a turn for the worse when Ms. Rooney asks Emily to be class monitor. Emily feels important sitting at the teacher's desk, until Sherri Dent leaves her seat without Emily's permission. Emily reports her. That's when Sherri tells Emily, "You'll be sorry."Emily is really worried. What will Sherri do to get even?

Halloween should be fun, but Beast is in big trouble. He was working really hard on his spelling homework when Ms. Rooney read The Halloween Horror to the class. Then she told the students to write to the author."Say anything," Matthew suggests, and Beast does. He tells the author he loved the dog in the book. And he even invites the author to come to school's Halloween parade, never dreaming he might accept. Then Beast finds out therewas no dog in the book.And now, to make Beast's Halloween really horrible, guess who's coming to the Polk Street Halloween parade? And guess who's been assigned to be his helper?

Oh, no! Mother's Day is almost here and Emily Arrow's plans are a mess. She can't think of a good present. Even the marigold she planted at school won't grow. How can she give her mother an old milk carton full of dirt?Luckily Emily gets the best Mother's Day idea in the world. It's simple too. All she needs is a little help from Linda Lorca.But two days before Mother's Day...is there still time?

"You never help people," Jiwon says.Her friend is right. Stacy can't remember the last time she'd helped anyone! Now Mrs. Zachary wants her class to be people-helpers and prepare a Spectacular Stone Soup together.Stacy works hard to be helpful, but no one seems to notice. Can quick thinking and a bunch of onions turn her into a spectacular people-helper?

Stacy can't wait to start her new class project, making an "About-Me" box. Into it will go special things that she likes. Jiwon's putting a scrap of her old baby dress in her About-Me box. Eddie's putting pictures of food in his. But Stacy can't think of one thing to put in hers.How can Stacy make her About-Me box as special as Jiwon's or Eddie's? She has to do something fast. Can she turn her box of troubles into a box of delights?

"Little kids don't go to jail."At least Stacy's hoping they don't! It's not easy to be good all the time. Stacy just had to try on the beautiful gold shoes her friend Jiwon brought to school to sell in the class store. Now the shoes are lost, and it's Stacy's fault.Even worse, Stacy's friends think she stole the shoes. How can she explain what really happened? Telling the truth is hard, but Stacy knows if the shoe fits, she has to wear it!

It's springtime and it's almost Richard "Beast" Best's birthday. His sister, Holly, is even giving him a surprise party. Or so he thinks. But what will she do when she finds out that Beast has squashed her egg-carton jewelry box?Meanwhile, Beast has a bigger problem. He and his best friend, Matthew Jackson, had to move the huge rabbit on wheels onto the stage for the spring assembly. When they started to push it, the monster rabbit ran amuck and rolled right off the stage. How will Beast and Matthew get the thing back together before Thursday's assembly?

It's almost Thanksgiving, and Richard Best can't stop thinking about Ms. Rooney's Candy Corn contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar on Ms. Roney's desk gets to keep them all. The only problem is Richard has to read a page in a library book for each guess.Smelly Matthew, who sits in front of him, knows they'll never win. "We're the worst readers in the class, " he says. But Richard won't give up. He can already taste those Candy Corns. And before he knows it, he has. Three fat juicy ones.What will Ms. Rooney do when she finds out?