It's Heaven To Be Seven

Ramona just wants everyone to be happy. Maybe she can't find her father a job, but she can help him stop smoking -- if only he'll listen to her.

Karen just wants one thing for her birthday, and it's not a trip to the circus. What she really wants is to celebrate with her entire family.

Emma doesn't think it's fair for her parents to go away for five whole days and leave her with an aunt and uncle she hardly knows. What if they don't like kids?

Some very peculiar things have been happening to james lately. He is inside a giant peach with his very peculiar new friends -- and they are about to set off on an even more peculiar adventure.

Nora has a lot of friends in her building, but what she really wants is a special best friend, a girl her own age. Too bad her new neighbors have a son. Can Nora ever learn to like him?

Five anthologies target ages with birthday-party specificity. It's Fun to Be Five (ages 5-7) and Now I Am Six (ages 6-9) have eight stories each, by authors such as A.A. Milne and Rosemary Wells. It's Heaven to Be Seven (ages 7-10); It's Great to Be Eight (ages 7-10) and It's Fine to Be Nine (ages 8-11) each gather a dozen stories with black-and-white illustrations; authors include Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl.