The Bridge Battle

The sixth book in the Lemonade War series follows siblings Jessie and Evan Treski through a summer in which both face bullying and learn difficult lessons about courage, fairness, and kindness.

Nine-year-old Jessie Treski, who skipped a grade due to her advanced academics, begins Summer Fun Exploration Camp dismayed to learn she has been placed in a fairy house class instead of her preferred bridge-building class because her single mother submitted the registration form late. The teacher is Pixie Fairydust, a young woman in a full fairy costume who throws glitter at Jessie, which she hates. Worse, the class includes Becky Baker, along with Becky's followers Lorelei and Andrea, three girls who played a cruel trick on Jessie in second grade. When Pixie asks Jessie's name, Becky calls out "Freak." David Kirkorian, an eccentric boy from Jessie's fourth-grade class, rounds out the small group.

Meanwhile, Jessie's older brother Evan starts summer school at the adjacent middle school, separated from the camp by a small stream. Evan's report cards praise him as a "natural-born leader" who is well liked, but he needs extra help with reading and math. A clerical error has placed him with older students, and a transfer proves impossible. Accustomed to being "the easy kid" who spares adults from worry, Evan agrees to stay. On the playground, a tall, dominant older classmate named Reed dares Evan to sink a pebble through a basketball hoop. Evan succeeds, but Reed then urges him to throw a pebble at a small, bespectacled fellow student sitting alone. Evan refuses, yet stands frozen as other boys pelt the boy with pebbles. The boy reveals his name is Stevie, not "Albert," the mocking nickname Reed assigned to imply he is no genius.

At camp, Jessie channels her energy into bridge engineering, bringing her reference book, The Great Big Book of Bridges, and working on blueprints for a cantilever bridge, a type that extends outward and is balanced by counterweights, which she plans to enter in a statewide contest. Becky "accidentally" spills water on the book and knocks glue onto Jessie's work area. David retaliates by flicking glue into Becky's hair. Jessie builds a stunning fairy house overnight and then constructs a working cantilever model from Popsicle sticks and red plastic cups, using pennies as counterweights. When a small toy car successfully crosses the bridge, the class cheers. While everyone is distracted, however, someone covers Jessie's fairy house in purple glitter.

Evan's situation grows darker. Reed steals his basketball and kicks it into impassable scrub. He shoves Stevie down concrete steps, sending him to the nurse. On the walk home, Evan watches Reed and his friends throw rocks at Stevie, herding him toward a busy street. Evan knows he should intervene but cannot act. After Evan mentions a goose nest near the stream, Reed dubs him "Goose Boy." Later, Reed lures Evan into a reckless Frisbee game on the school's fenceless roof, where Evan nearly falls off the edge. After this encounter, Reed unexpectedly welcomes Evan into his circle. At the drugstore, Reed orders Evan to shoplift. Evan devises a workaround, flashing a candy bar at the cashier while secretly paying for it so the act looks like theft. He keeps the Almond Joy but cannot eat it.

Pixie reveals she is a college student who stepped in when her mother, who planned the class, had surgery. An anonymous parent complaint threatens her job, and Jessie suspects Becky's mother filed it. Jessie also recognizes that Becky's rose quartz pendant matches the shape of a keystone, the central stone that locks a Roman arch bridge together. She connects the pendant to Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, and bets Becky she can guess where Becky's grandparents live. If Jessie loses, she must skip the final week of camp; if she wins, Becky must surrender the necklace. Jessie wins, and Becky hands it over with shaking hands, returning from the bathroom with red, puffy eyes. Yet Jessie feels unexpectedly guilty.

At home, the siblings confide in each other. Evan explains that Jessie's intelligence gives her an unfair edge, so the bet was never truly equal. He confesses the fake shoplifting and his struggle with feeling like an outsider for the first time. Jessie shows Evan how a Roman arch bridge holds together through compression and begins molding clay blocks for a demonstration.

Reed then tricks Evan into climbing onto the roof to dump what Evan believes is a bag of pebbles onto another boy's head. Reed has secretly filled the bag with goose droppings and changed the target to Stevie. Evan dumps the bag and looks over the edge to see Stevie staring up at him, covered in droppings. Evan hides at home, expecting expulsion, but no call comes; Stevie never identifies him.

Pixie is fired, and a disengaged substitute replaces her for the final two days. Jessie takes charge, leading the class from memory. She confronts Becky, who admits her mother complained to the camp director. Jessie then discovers that every page of her bridge book has been carefully glued shut, destroyed beyond repair.

Evan returns to school and finds that someone has destroyed the goose nest near the stream, scattering the eggs. Stevie returns with his arm in a sling. Evan apologizes to Stevie, who reveals he stayed silent because he could tell Evan was more upset. Evan calls Reed "a bully" aloud, and the word diminishes Reed's power. He offers Stevie friendship. When Reed and his gang confront them, Evan physically charges Reed, who stumbles backward and retreats, never having been confronted before.

On the final day of camp, Jessie leads the class in building a Roman arch bridge from clay blocks. Each student holds blocks as the arch grows until a single gap remains at the top. Jessie calls on Becky to pull the keystone necklace from Jessie's pocket and lower it into position, telling Becky the necklace was always hers. When all students release their blocks, the bridge stands, held together solely by compression. Jessie realizes that returning the necklace, and ending her own meanness, matters as much as making Becky stop.

Becky then lures Jessie into setting up her contest bridge over the stream, claiming her mother wants to photograph it for the newspaper. Early Saturday, Becky appears at Jessie's door in tears and confesses that her brother plans to destroy the bridge. Jessie races to school and finds Evan and Stevie already there; Stevie overheard the plan and alerted Evan. The three realize Reed and Becky are siblings: The same bully has been targeting both Treski children.

Reed arrives and picks up a heavy rock to hurl at the bridge, but a pair of Canada geese emerge from the tall grass and charge him, pecking until he flees. The geese then carry grass onto the bridge deck, building a new nest to replace the one that was destroyed.

In the final scene, Jessie, Evan, and Pixie lie in the grass watching the nest through binoculars. Reed has stopped attending summer school. Evan is teaching Stevie to play H-O-R-S-E, a basketball shooting game. Pixie, moved by a class visit Jessie organized to her home after the firing, plans to focus on finishing college. Jessie reflects that she never entered the bridge contest, but finds unexpected fulfillment: Her bridge, strong enough to support a nesting goose, is proof of her engineering skill. She spots troll figures placed under the bridge like guardians, left there by Katrina, a younger classmate. When a goose honks and beats its wings, Jessie calls it "applause" and declares it is enough for her.