The 5,000 Friends of Veronica Veetch

Precocious Veronica Veetch is worldly beyond her years. She talks about opera and oysters. She fences, ballroom dances, and ties nautical knots. When her classmates decide she's too snooty to be their friend, Veronica invites them to her house to embark on an around-the-world trip. Their surprise at what they find there is surpassed only by their newfound love of literature. This ode to bookish friendships, written in Seussian verse, turns ideas about social class on their heads and encourages children to look beyond the surface and into the heart.