Meet Tess, a thirteen-year-old who lands in a pickle in every one of these four related stories. Meet Cookie, the circus camel who spits something fierce; Old Man Dawson, the school vice principal who might be the Angel of Death?; and Heath, the boy across the lane. Set in the Village of Kaslo on the shores of Kootenay Lake, B. C., these stories, suitable for eleven to thirteen-year-old readers, follow the capers of Tess as she problem-solves her way through her predicaments, finding greater self-knowledge as she goes. Tess has no money but does have a business plan to change her lot in life....