Here are three short books pre­sent­ed in one vol­ume, fea­tur­ing a class of eighth-grade girls in a reli­gious day school, their dai­ly tri­als and tribu­la­tions, and the lessons they learn about life. This is the third vol­ume in a series. 

Each of the three nov­el­ettes spot­lights one mem­ber of the class and that girl then becomes a back­ground class­mate in the oth­er two selec­tions. This inter­est­ing tech­nique demon­strates to the read­er that points of view can dif­fer even while liv­ing through the exact same series of events. 

Each char­ac­ter has a prob­lem to over­come: one stut­ters, one faces a social prob­lem, one does not want to accept her par­ents’ impend­ing divorce fear­ing the emo­tion­al impli­ca­tions as well as loss of social sta­tus. Each char­ac­ter takes strides with the help, and some­times the hin­drance, of fam­i­ly and friends, toward resolv­ing her issues and learn­ing more about her­self as she does so.

Although this book and its com­pan­ions are aimed pri­mar­i­ly at Ortho­dox girls, the sto­ries deal with issues that are encoun­tered by young peo­ple every­where and can be read and enjoyed beyond that spe­cif­ic tar­get group. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 – 13.