Beth endures some difficult experiences which lead her to reappraise her leadership skills.

This title has been removed from sale by Penguin Group, USA.

Join the irrepressible Beth Lambert as she goes home after a long visit with her grandmother in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Beth is happy to see her friends the Pretty Pennies, and even happier to see her family (and eat her mother's fried turkey, tamale pie, and floradora potatoes), but she might just be happiest of all to see her best friend, Philip Hall. But not for long, because Philip gets it into his head (with a little help from Beth) that she made a new friend in Walnut Ridge -- a boyfriend. Now Philip won't rest until he meets this "nutty Walnutter" face-to-face in an arm-wrestling match in front of the whole town. There's only one problem -- Beth's new friend doesn't exist. She made him up! Once again Beth's mouth has gotten her into trouble. And once again she'll have to do some fast talking to see if she can get herself out of it.

A comprehensive guide to multicultural literature for children, this valuable resource features more than 1,600 titles—including fiction, folktales, poetry, and song books—that focus on diverse cultural groups. The selected titles, pubished between the 1970s and 1990s are suitable for use with preschoolers through sixth graders and are likely to be found on the shelves of school and public libraries. Topics are timely, with an emphasis on books that reflect the needs and interests of today's children. Each detailed entry includes bibliographic information. Use level is also included, as are cultural designation, subjects, and a summary. The invaluable Subject Access section incorporates use level culture information.

Here are sixteen representative stories for the eighties, written especially for this collection by today's best-known writers for teenagers. Their impressions radiate through an emotional prism of hope and hate, love and death, despair and joy, in a diverse yet strikingly unified collection.