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She was in a new school, and Cress Delahanty, age thirteen, wanted a new personality to go with it. What she needed, she thought, was a trademark, one that would get her immediate notice and popularity. The whole thing started when Cress heard that Bernadine Deevers, ‘just about the most populous girl in school,’ had referred to her as ‘deliciously amusing.’ Cress decided that amusing was not quite enough; funny or crazy would be better. Plotting carefully, Cress wrote out a plan of attack, a list of ideas, which she not-so-accidentally left where her parents would find it. For Mr. Delahanty, a maker of lists himself, it was a reminder of the year he was thirteen, when he had searched for a trademark. It was a time – and a trademark – he’d rather forget. For Mrs. Delahanty, who never made lists, life was bigger and better than words and to sum it up, in a series of lists was too restrictive. She had never needed to search for a personality. What was she to make of the list headed ‘My Trademark. Isn’t she crazy?’ Under it was ‘Useful Gags for Craziness. I. Clothes, A. Shoes, 1. Unmatched.’ But neither Cress nor her parents spoke openly for craziness as a trademark. Instead they spoke of things in general, of school and of classes and of Cress’s hope to be freshman editor of the yearbook – a job that traditionally led to being editor-in-chief of the senior yearbook. So Cress’s plan moved ahead without discussion, though not without concern.