Elsa, who is the same age, works in the kitchen. When the girls learn that Elsa dreams of learning to read, they conspire to teach her--and the three become most unlikely friends.

    Aunt Win, a teacher, had suddenly been left a big old hotel that she couldn't sell. And she had pupils in Switzerland waiting for her to start a course of private English lessons, and a soldier husband who was about to lead a big expedition to Africa. But one thing was clear - Aunt Win had no intention whatever of starting a school ... Come and meet Aunt Win, and Amamda and Alison, and the twins, and Shelley and Gabriele and Renuka - and discover the adventures at Four Winds! Julia Blythe is a pen-name of the well known Catholic journalist and broadcaster Joanna Bogle. A frequent guest on EWTN, she lectures regularly in the USA and Australia, as well as to schools, colleges, women's organisations and other groups in Britain. She is married to a lawyer and they live in London.

    She doesn't know how anything is supposed to be done. She gets upset when she finds out what Woody has brought for show and tell--his fish, Huey, dead since the day before--and Woody gets in trouble. But when she needs help, Woody comes to the rescue, and finds that there's another side to Miss Plunkett. Told in short, easy-to-read chapters, this past-paced and funny story skillfully targets the concerns of second graders.