Feeling abandoned by her parents and her best friend, sixth grader Jenna worries that her severe stage fright will spoil her performance at a flute competition--until she gets to know a class misfit who is a good musician and an even better friend.
Lonely eleven-year-old Dodie meets Jeffrey, who has muscular dystrophy, and discovers what it is like to have a real friend, even as his condition worses.
When her extreme shyness makes her unable to speak at her new American school, twelve-year-old Jinna, newly arrived from China, retreats into her own fairy tale world.