Russell Hoban

When Albert and his buddies have a "no girls" baseball game, Frances and her sister organize a "Best Friends Outing -- No Boys."

Follows the experiences of a discarded popsicle stick that is picked up by a little girl who dreams about a magical horse that gallops with her through cities, jungles, and over an ice-pop mountain leading to a gold-filled pirate chest.

Frances finds it difficult to go to sleep with the strange noises and menacing shapes that seem to fill her room after dark.