Allergic

Maggie wakes up believing that it will be “the worst day ever” because her school district changed boundaries and she has to start at a new school without her friends (48). Her twin brothers, meanwhile, are excited because they’ll finally be in the same class. She gives her mother a hug, and her mother reminds her that her grandmother will pick her up and tells her to keep taking deep breaths. As Maggie walks with her dad and brothers to the school bus stop, she thinks about her new school and the baby who will soon be born, and she wishes things didn’t have to change. All the other kids chat excitedly at the bus stop while she stands alone. She sits alone on the bus and waves to her dad.

As Maggie arrives at Golden River Elementary, crowds of children talk excitedly. In one illustration, she’s very short, only coming up to other people’s ankles. In her fifth-grade classroom, everyone’s excited about a covered box on the teacher’s desk. The teacher comes in and removes the red blanket covering the box, revealing their new class pet: a guinea pig. Everyone loves the animal, but Maggie starts sneezing despite her best attempts to hold the sneezes in.