Claudia Mills

Here's the third entry in Claudia Mills' charming middle-grade series. Mason Dixon survived the school choir. He survived adopting his now-beloved dog named, uh, Dog. But now he faces his biggest challenge yet: joining the local basketball team. Not by choice, of course. Not only do his parents encourage it, but his dad even volunteers to be his coach. Now, with his best pal Brody and a team of misfits even worse at basketball than him (if that's...

Second-grader Gus wants a store-bought Halloween costume to wear to school, but because he knows his parents do not believe in buying costumes, he turns to his grandfather for help.

"The third book in the Franklin School Friends series is a fast and funny story about sports, friendship, and sibling rivalries."--

Gus waves at the train near his grandfather's house, sets up a toy train, and eventually gets to ride on the train with his grandfather.

Having baked six dozen Christmas cookies for themselves and been given many more by the neighbors, Gus and Grandpa find a rewarding solution to disposing of their extra holiday treats.

Annika hopes to change her best friends' hatred of math by winning a Sudoku contest, but she does not realize how important their lack of mathematical ability is until they make a mistake at the school carnival.

Gus enjoys basketball practice, but the noise and pace of real games bother him, until his grandpa gives him some good advice.

Third-grader Wilson struggles with his times-tables in order to beat the class deadline.

Nixie and Grace have been best and only friends since preschool, but now Nixie must attend an after-school cooking camp while Grace spends her afternoons with classmate Elyse.

Third-grader Lucy Lopez attends coding camp at her after-school program and becomes a coding star.--