In this story from Edward Wortis (aka Avi), three bumbling friends demonstrate how not to go about passing a Boy Scout camping test. It is fortunate the story is set in the 1940s. If three nine year-olds were to set off as poorly prepared as they were these days, the ending probably wouldn’t be as happy. The major theme is that taking part in a challenge is more important that completing or winning it. Other themes: friendship, pride, poor planning and preparation, toughness (in this case being prepared to admit when something is too difficult), and scout’s honor (applied selectively!)

The major theme of this story from Edward Wortis (aka Avi) is closed-mindedness. A struggling single mother still treats her sixth-grader son, Willie, as a young child. She is so preoccupied with her troubles that she doesn’t realize he is now an adolescent. Through prejudice, she shuns a beggar on the street. When Willie asks how to cure the beggar’s unhappiness, her answer is money. The beggar’s answer is cryptic: “What a person needs is always more than they (other people) say.” By this, he means everyone’s situation is different; we need to “open our eyes” to understand their needs.

Edward Wortis (aka Avi)’s Teacher Tamer is a coming of age story about unfairness, revenge, peer pressure, compassion and courage. A burnt-out fifth grade teacher regularly punishes the most promising student in class for things he did not do. In a moment of anger, the boy plots revenge and boasts about it to classmates. Although the class bully questions his courage, others say that if he succeeds he will become the class hero. He feels pressured into going ahead. The plan ends in failure, but by the end of the story he is hailed by the nickname Teacher Tamer.

This story from Edward Wortis (aka Avi) is about “the baddest” member of a small group of troublesome sixth graders. Matt is constantly trying to prove how bad he is by taking on dares. His father, a church minister, does not seem greatly concerned by this in the belief that one day Matt will change. A dare that goes horribly wrong (or right depending how you look at it) proves his father correct. Themes: peer pressure, pride, good vs. evil, forgiveness. The story’s message: nobody is born bad; there is the potential for goodness in everyone.