Emily is stuck with crybaby Jill Simon as her "secret Pal" to be kind to for the whole month of December.

Patricia Reilly Giff has recieved the Newbery Honor for Pictures of Hollis Woods and Lily’s Crossing, which is also a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book. Nory Ryan’s Song was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Notable Book.
Blanche Sims is a children’s book illustrator, born in Cleveland, Ohio. She has illustrated dozens of books, as well as the television film Beyond the Butterfly, which won a Parents’ Choice Foundation commendation for television in 2000.