Queen Esther & the Second Graders of Doom. Allie Pleiter

Teaching Sunday school at her brother's church in the Bay area was supposed to help former champion athlete Esther «Essie» Walker understand boys–the better to raise her newborn son as a stellar example of manhood. Fat chance! Enter the eight-year-old male psyche: awful jokes, disrespectful behavior and general mayhem.Essie, the queen of control, finds herself in a brand-new world of chaos.The pressure builds on all fronts–Sunday school class, husband's job, church pageant, aging parents, finances, friends secretly battling illnesses–until Queen Esther has one royal meltdown. God, it seems, has makeover plans for Essie's competitive nature. Her characteristic control is in very short supply as she gains a better understanding of the nature of imperfection, the value of motherhood and the virtues of a messy but connected life.