Although his teacher insists there are stories everywhere, Ralph cannot think of any to write.

Abdul loves telling stories but thinks his messy handwriting and spelling mistakes will keep him from becoming an author, until Mr. Muhammad visits and encourages him to persist.

What happens when the story ideas--from a bored Viking to a space robot--kept in a teacher's special jar escape and get rowdy?

A boy begrudgingly composes a sometimes-rhyming adventure with his precocious little sister.

Yasmin struggles with Ms. Alex's assignment to write an essay about her hero until she realizes that her hero is someone very close to her.

When thirteen-year-old Joan moves to California in 1972, she becomes friends with Sarah, who is timid at school but an imaginative leader when they play in the woods, and after winning a writing contest together they are recruited for an exclusive summer writing class that gives them new insights into themselves and others.

"A young boy wants to write a story, just like his big sister. But there's a problem, he tells her. Though he knows his letters, he doesn't know many words. ?Every story starts with a single word and every word starts with a single letter,? his sister explains patiently. ?Why don't you start there, with a letter?? So the boy tries. He writes a letter. An easy letter. The letter I. And from that one skinny letter, the story grows, and the little boy...