"Yusuf is excited to start middle school in his small Texas town, but with the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks coming up, suddenly it feels like the country's same anger and grief is all focused on his Muslim community"--

Sixth-graders Cordelia, Agnes, and Benji go on a quest to unravel the secrets of Shadow School.

"Ali Cross and his friends chase police cases while Ali is caught up in a debate about policing"--

When sixth-grader Mac discovers several words of his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic are blacked out he is outraged, so he, his friends, and his eccentric family set out to do something about the censorship imposed by one teacher and the school board.

Eleven-year-old Tom the Vam-Wolf-Zom meets Martha, the 244-year-old vampire who bit him, and convinces her to teach him such important things as how to fly and how to hypnotize people.

Twelve-year-old cancer survivor Norah struggles to fit in at middle school after two years of treatment, but she finds her voice with the help of new friend Griffin, who shares her love of mythology.

Twelve-and-a-half year old Emelyn Ethrige lives with her widowed father in South Carolina, dreams of wheelchair motocross, and makes custom chair bags trying to earn enough money to buy a serious set of wheels; she has been in a wheelchair all her life, and is just fine getting around without help, but it seems that since her mother was killed in an accident everyone (father, grandparents, teachers, and classmates) have started treating her differently:...

No one likes or wants to take the statewide assessment tests. Not the students in Mrs. Woods?s sixth-grade class. Not even Mrs. Woods. It?s not as if the kids don?t already have things to worry about. . . . The whole school is in a frenzy with test time approaching?kids, teachers, the administration. Everyone is anxious. When one of the kids has a big idea for acing the tests, they?re all in. But things get ugly before they get better, and in the...

A fifth-grader whose best friends walked away, whose mother is detached, and whose father does unspeakable things, copes with the help of friend Sofie and anonymous letters tied to balloons and released.

Bree can’t wait for her first day at her new middle school, Enith Brigitha, home to the Mighty Manatees—until she’s stuck with the only elective that fits her schedule, the dreaded Swim 101. The thought of swimming makes Bree more than a little queasy, yet she’s forced to dive headfirst into one of her greatest fears. Lucky for her, Etta, an elderly occupant of her apartment building and former swim team captain, is willing to help. With Etta’s...