Though no longer a fat girl, Elsie, now fifteen, still has trouble believing anyone could love her and that old fear threatens her relationship with her boyfriend.
Bucky and his father, prospecting for gold in Alaska in 1898, must overcome storms, dangerous mountain trails, and wilderness predators before confronting the final challenge of human treachery.
Helen fears that lack of improvement in her reading may leave her stuck in the sixth grade forever, until a good teacher recognizes her reading problem.