The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Cerra, Kerry O’Malley. Just a Drop of Water. Sky Pony Books, 2014.

The novel is set in Florida, and it centers around the life of the middle school protagonist, Jake, and his close friends. When the novel starts, Jake and his friends are most concerned with cross country. Jake believes he will be named one of the team captains, but his best friend, Sam, and the new boy, Kirk, are instead named captains. He does not believe it is right that Kirk is named captain, and he plans to earn the title away from him. Jake and his friends plan to pour water on the pants of rival Tyler, at their next cross country meet because in the boys’ meet against Tyler’s school the year before, Tyler pantsed Jake and humiliated him.

On September 11, before the meet with Tyler’s team can take place, terrorists fly planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and they crash another plane in a field in Pennsylvania. The students learn about this while they are at school. Jake’s mother is panicked and picks him up from school. His father is out of town on business, but they learn that he was not on an airplane. Jake’s mom takes him to the grocery store to get as many supplies as she can in case they need to stay in their home. She is afraid to even be out in public. It is later revealed that her father died suddenly because of a terrorist group that kidnapped him when he was an ambassador. Jake does not know why his mother is acting so strangely throughout the novel, but she gets therapy and eventually tells her son the story about her father’s death.

Jake is surprised to learn that students at school target Sam because Sam’s grandparents are Muslim. Sam and his immediate family are not religious, but this does not stop Bobby and his friends from targeting Sam, sometimes violently. Jake wants to avenge these attacks against his friend with violence, but Sam largely withdraws and even stops communicating much with Jake. Sam decides he wants to learn more about the Muslim faith since he is being bullied because of it, and he starts spending a lot of time at a mosque learning about the faith and preparing to educate people about it.

Through all of this, Jake has been doing yard work at the home of a local couple, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkey. The children have always been afraid of the Wilkeys because Mr. Wilkey never leaves his home. They eventually learn that this is because he has a skin condition, but prior to learning this, the children always spread rumors that he was a vampire.

The students have a peace rally planned, and Jake overhears Bobby talking to his friends about how they will do some damage during the rally. Jake believes that they are going to do something to Sam and his family, so he tries to get more information from one of the boys, Matt. Matt will not share anything with him, however. Jake plans to leave the rally and run to Sam’s house. At the rally, however, he comes to the realization that the boys are going to attack the mosque, not Sam’s family. He and Sam go to the mosque where Bobby and Rigo start throwing flaming bottles into the windows. Jake is able to break most of the bottles before they do damage, but Bobby does get some into the mosque. Mr. Wilkey also found out about the attack and went to help in case Jake needed it.

In the end, Jake and Sam become friends again, and Sam gives his team captain armband to Jake because Jake never gave up on the team when Sam did. Jake learns that he was discriminating against the Wilkeys just as he was fighting against other students discriminating against Sam. Jake’s mom comes to realize how she has been acting unfairly and tries to open her mind back up to Sam’s family. Jake has learned that it is good to fight against injustice but it must be done in effective ways even if the effect is small.