Never before has the writing duo Zhvalevsky-Pasternak received such varied reviews of a manuscript from their test readers - from “there are no such sixth-graders at all” to “I felt like all the heroes at once.” And that's great! But something still needs to be explained. First, Banal Stories doesn’t have a single plot—it’s a collection of short stories about sixth-graders. Each novella consists of several parts. Each part is a story told by one of the characters. And secondly, if a book is about sixth graders, this does not mean that it is only for them. The characters include younger and older sisters, parents, teachers and other adults. The authors hope that all these diverse readers will find out: there are no banal stories in life.