13 Gifts, Wendy Mass. Tara Brennan, in order to win friends, is caught when she accepts the challenge to break into the principal's office to steal his goat, only to get caught. Because it is near the end of the school year, her parents ship her off to Willow Falls to spend the summer with her aunt while they travel to Madagascar researching lemurs. On the train ride, her money and phone are stolen. Trying to cover up not having money, she steals one of her uncle's valuable comic books to pawn, only to be found out by the proprietor, Angelina, who actually sold it to her uncle. To avoid further embarrassment, Angelina tells her to find 13 items on a list by her fast approaching thirteenth birthday and all debts will be repaid. With the help of new found friends, they set out on the scavenger hunt to find the odd items, such as: one brass candlestick in the shape of a fish, one black steamer trunk with gold latch, and one wooden cane, handle shaped like a duck's beak.

As the items are found, Tara finds a playbill at the bottom of the new found trunk for Fiddler on the Roof, which was set to perform 35 years earlier, but was abruptly cancelled. Having found all the items and given them to Angelina, she know tells Tara she must produce and put on the musical. Reluctantly, with the help of friends, young and old, the singing part of the musical alone is set to go on.to an appreciative audience.

While on summer break, Tara is made to write an essay of what she learned from her goat stealing days. As stories merge together and Tara learns quite a bit about her parents hometown, she also learns about friendship and duty.