Florence Parry Heide

A list of scary things includes "roller skating down hill when you haven't learned how to stop, getting hugged by somebody you don't like, and finding out your best friend has a best friend who isn't you."

"If you want to pretend you're shrinking, that's all right," said Treehorn's mother, "as long as you don't do it at the table." But Treehorn wasn’t pretending. He really was shrinking, and that didn’t make life easy for him as he became smaller by the moment. Treehorn’s teacher said, we don’t shrink in this class, and sent him to the Principal. Poor Treehorn spends an unhappy day and night until he discovers a magical game that helps him solve...

All the elephant's friends give him advice, but none can solve his problem until the opossum announces friends are to help, not just to give advice.

A ten-year-old Lebanese boy goes to school, helps his mother with chores, plays with his friends, and lives with his family in a basement shelter when bombings occur and fighting begins on his street.