Erin Dionne

Hamlet's attempts to be a "normal" eighth grader become increasingly difficult when her genius seven-year-old sister and her eccentric Shakespeare scholar parents both begin to attend her school.

Excited to give his report on explorer Ernest Shackleton in school, and frustrated by a monstrous snowstorm that has left his family and city snowbound, a boy imagines himself on a voyage where he and his crew (his family) are trapped by the ice, just like his favorite explorer and the ship, Endurance.

Eighth-grader Hester Greene suffers from Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, plus anxiety, which is why she loves making movies where she is behind the camera and in complete control of the action--but if she cannot improve her language arts grade she will not be allowed to enter her video in The Hoot (a showcase of student work) and write a satisfactory ending to her middle school career.

Nina loves ballet, not sports, so when her mother signs her up to play baseball she sulks until the coach explains how baseball and ballet can go together--and when a timely plié in the outfield saves the game she realizes that "balletball" is really not so bad after all.