A discarded chain letter augers a series of bad events for Mary Anne, who is plagued by bad luck and a threatening note demanding a midnight meeting on Old Man Sutcliff's grave.

"As his school's centennial is coming up, Big Nate is stuck showing the dorky new kid around"-- Principal Nichols wants Nate to be buddies with the new kid Breckenridge Puffington III, but that's no easy task when Breckenridge is a plant-doodling total fun-sponge.

Nancy thinks she may be able to read the future, and all signs point to her being a true clairvoyant (that's fancy for a fortune-teller). Nancy tries her hand at fortune-telling but quickly learns it's a bit more complicated than she thought. Does Nancy really have special powers, or is it all just a coincidence?

Susan the duck keeps feeling unlucky, so when a wolf shows up with gifts she has won it seems like her luck is turning around, but soon she realizes the wolf's intentions may not be as helpful as she imagined.

"Maddie's not impulsive. She's all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment -- She wins! In a flash, Maddie's life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she's talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun...until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now, Maddie isn't sure who she can trust....

After being magically gifted with incredible luck, sixteen-year-old Jude discovers this gift just may be a curse when it comes to love.

Roscoe is determined to guess the weight of a giant pumpkin in order to win books for his school library and candy for himself, but is overwhelmed by superstitions, especially about a certain black kitten.

"Janes and Danny are on a mission: to get the little silver race car out of the gumball machine at Mr. Wrights store. Only very, very, lucky people get both gumballs and the silver racer. It's a good thing one of James's quarter is a Canadian quarter, which just so happens to be very, very lucky. But is it lucky enough to get him that silver racer." -- Jacket.

When the state of Maine threatens to shut down their island's one-room schoolhouse because of dwindling enrollment, eleven-year-old Tess, a strong believer in luck, and her family take in a trumpet-playing foster child, to increase the school's population.

"It's fun to be a Baby-sitters Little Sister. No fair! Karen is having a bad-luck day. Her favorite jeans are missing. There's no prize in the Crunch-O cereal box. And Boo-Boo the cat runs away from her! Karen tries everything to make her day better. But her bad luck just won't go away. She even gets punished and sent to her room! Poor Karen--will this be her worst day ever?" -- Page [4] cover.