FRECKLE JUICE, Nicky's freckles cover his face, his ears, and the whole back of his neck. Sitting behind him in class, Andrew once counted eighty-six of them, and that was just a start! If Andrew had freckles like Nicky, his mother would never know if his neck was dirty. One day after school, Andrew works up enough courage to ask Nicky where he got his freckles. When know-it-all Sharon overhears, she offers Andrew her secret freckle juice recipe—for fifty cents. It's a lot of money, but Andrew is desperate. It's not until after he goes home and carefully mixes the strange combination of ingredients that Andrew realizes he might be getting more than he paid for.

THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE IS THE GREEN KANGAROO, second-grader Freddy Dissel has that left-out kind of feeling. Life can be lonely when you're the middle kid in the family and you feel like "the peanut butter part of a sandwich," squeezed between an older brother and a little sister. But now, for the first time, it's Freddy's chance to show everyone how special he is and, most of all, prove it to himself!