The Noonday Friends

Franny wants her sandwich packed in a lunch box or even a paper bag. Anything but a free lunch pass. She also wants to be able to spend time with her best friend, Simone, outside the cafeteria, after school. But Franny's charming artist father can't seem to hold a job, and her mother works full time; so the eleven-year-old New Yorker has a lot of responsibilities and worries at home. Because Simone often has to help out in her own large immigrant family, she understands, most of the time. But lately Franny thinks wealthy Lila has more to offer Simone...