As Grace and her classmates study foods from other cultures, she has the opportunity to ponder such mysteries as whether Owen 1 is really bad or not, why she feels jealous when her father helps her best friend with her hot dog report, and how Augustine Dupre, her family's French boarder, can be so wise.

Twelve-year old Sarah is used to being the star on her basketball team, playing with her best friends, but suddenly she finds that her body is changing and she does not understand why she cannot keep up on the court, plus she does not understand why her mother has gotten so weird about food, binging on candy while forgetting about dinner, and she really does not understand why she told Benny, her crush, about her mother--but when Benny offers to teach...