When Alex, the new boy in first grade, tries to make make friends by boasting about his possessions his plan backfires. The first graders don't like liars and refuse to have anything to do with him. However, on the day of the class holiday party, when Jim loses part of his decoration, Alex helps him find it. Jim then befriends Alex who learns that boasting is not the way to make friends. This reissue of Miriam Cohen's book deals sensitively with the challenges that children face when they begin social interaction at school. Ronald Himler's new watercolor illustrations give the first graders distinctive personalities and provide a picture of the everyday tragicomedy of a first grade classroom.