Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
Judy Blume
 When the family of Sheila Tubman, Peter Hatcher's rival from the Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, as well as Superfudge, takes a trip to Tarrytown with her family. The family reside in the house of Sheila's father's friend, Professor George Egran. Sheila pretends that she is fearless and confident. The truth, however, is that many things terrify her. The family vacation forces her to confront some of her many secret fears, including the dark, swimming, ghosts, lightning, spiders and dogs. Sheila attends a day camp where she meets a girl named Merle "Mouse" Ellis, who is skilled at many activities that Sheila fears and is an exceptional yo-yo champion. In spite of envying Mouse for her multiple talents, Sheila befriends her and tries to mask her cowardice with a more courageous, talented personality. Mouse does not appear to have many fears and according to Sheila, Mouse is able to do everyhing. Unforunately for Sheila, she is afraid of dogs and is unable to swim. Mouse, on the other hand, loves dogs and is a swimming champion. The Egrans own a pet dog named Jennifer that Sheila fears. Mrs. Tubman has her daughter take swimming lessons with an instructor named Marty. Sheila is deeply reluctant about this arrangement but is forced to pull through with it anyway, and becomes acquainted with Mouse's younger sister Betsy, who is a phenomenal swimmer and pulls an empty box called "Ootch" around, pretending that it is a pet dog, since her allergies prevent her from being able to adopt an actual dog, and the Van Arden twins, Sondra and Jane. Sheila also signs up to write a portion of the camp newspaper entitled "Newsdate by Sheila the Great," where she writes about her fellow campers, but is forced to give up her position after two boys complete her crossword puzzle and she has no other reward to give to them after promising whoever filled the crossword puzzle with a prize. Even though Sheila's relationship with her new friends from camp appears to be turning out smoothly, one night at a sleepover party, when the girls fill out "slam books" and give each other their true opinions on one another, Sheila discovers that the others wrote rather negative comments about her and that the other guests' slam books are also quite offensive. Antagonized by these writings, the group winds up tossing toy models belonging to the Egrans' son Bobby (whose bedroom Sheila is sleeping in) at each other, only to be faced with repairing these items afterward. Jennifer mates with a neighboring dog named Mumford and is expecting a litter of puppies. Sheila's older sister Libby urges her parents to adopt one of the puppies after they have been born as the Egrans have offered, whereas Sheila protests against this, fearing the idea of owning a pet dog. However, gradually, Marty's encouragement with Sheila in the water helps her conquer her fear of swimming, and soon she is comforted slightly in her fear of dogs also, although not entirely.