Judith Viorst

On a day when everything goes wrong for him, Alexander is consoled by the thought that other people have bad days too.

Alexander's two brothers have money in their pockets. All he has are bus tokens. It isn't fair. He had money last Sunday when his grandparents gave them each a dollar. Now it's all gone. At first he was saving the money for a walkie-talkie. But saving money is hard. He bought gum with some of the money, but when it stopped tasting good, he had to buy more. Good-bye 15 cents. Then Eddie offered to rent him his snake for an hour, and he couldn't pass...

Lulu's parents refuse to give in when she demands a brontosaurus for her birthday and so she sets out to find her own, but while the brontosaurus she finally meets approves of pets, he does not intend to be Lulu's.

"Lulu is sent to Camp Sisterhood to learn how to be a big sister, but she makes it her mission to be the worst sister-in-training in camp history"--

On verso title page: The loves, illusions, dependencies, and impossible expectations that all of us have to give up in order to grow.