Pearl Littlefield's first assignment in fifth grade is complicated: She has to write an essay about her summer. Where does she begin? Her dad lost his job, she had to go to a different camp—one where her older sister Lexie was a counselor-in-training (ugh!)— she and her good friend James Brubaker III had a huge fight, which made them both wonder if the other kids were right that girls and boys can't be good friends which landed one of them in the hospital.