"Moving . . . Readers will nod their heads in sympathy with this guy who breaks the rules for all of the right reasons." — The Bulletin of the Center for Children's BooksA Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the YearIndiana Too Good to Miss State Reading List 2018Timothy is on probation. It's a strange word—something that happens to other kids, to delinquents, not to kids like him. And yet, he is u...

Levi just wants to be treated like a typical kid. As a baby, he had a serious disease that caused him respiratory issues. He's fine now, but his mom and overprotective brother still think of him as damaged, and his schoolmates see him as the same class clown he's always been. He feels stuck. So when his dad—divorced from his mom—suggests he take up boxing, he falls in love with the sport. And when he finds out about a school with a killer boxing team and a free-study curriculum, it feels l...

Kate and Tam meet, and both of their worlds tip sideways. At first, Tam figures Kate is your stereotypical cheerleader; Kate sees Tam as another tall jock. And the more they keep running into each other, the more they surprise each other. Beneath Kate's sleek ponytail and perfect façade, Tam sees a goofy, sensitive, lonely girl. And Tam's so much more than a volleyball player, Kate realizes: She's everything Kate wishes she could be. It's complicated. Except it's not. When Kate and Tam mee...

Blast off to deep-space adventure and hijinks!Things are not so stellar for Mike Stellar. He is stunned when his parents inform him that he has only eight hours to pack before they move to Mars. Despite the fact that he suspects his parents are involved in a major sabotage plot; that the only person who believes him is a girl who won’t shut up; and that his mother’s assistant seems to be spying on Mike’s every move, Mike is dealing with the same things that every eleven-ye...

Kevin has a bad attitude. He's the one who laughs when you trip and fall. In fact, he may have been the one who tripped you in the first place. He has a real knack for rubbing people the wrong way—and he's even figured out a secret way to do it with poems. But what happens when the tables are turned and he is the one getting picked on? Rhyme Schemer is a touching and hilarious middle-grade novel in verse about one seventh grader's journey from bully-er to bully-ee, as he learns ab...

From the author of Rhyme Schemer, House Arrest, and Knockout!The Kids Under the Stairs: BenBee and the Teacher Griefer is a funny, clever novel-in-verse series about Ben Bellows—who failed the Language Arts section of the Florida State test—and three classmates who get stuck in a summer school class.But these kids aren't dumb—they're divergent thinkers, as Ms. J tells them: they simply ap...

The Kids Under the Stairs series continues in this honest and hilarious novel-in-verse from award-winning author K.A. Holt. This fourth installment follows Javier—the artist, the quiet one, the funny one, the good friend—who finds himself on a collision course with a hurricane that shares his name.Javier—or Javi—is the quiet, funny one in his friend group and an all-around easygoing guy who’s also an artist. But as his ever-present sketchbook reveals, he has a lot ...

An incredible story of losing, growing, and healing, from the acclaimed author of House Arrest.Amelia Peabody lives in a small town where nothing changes. And that's just fine by her. After losing her big sister, Clara, a few years ago, Amelia can't handle any more change. But when she starts eighth grade, she accidentally receives a letter that Clara had written to herself. In it, there's a list of things she'd wanted to do before the end of middle school and never finish...

The first rule of lockdown: Find a safe place to hide.Ava is having a really bad day. Her parents are getting divorced. She just had a big argument with her two best friends. And she forgot to charge her phone… again.To top it all off, while she is hiding out in the bathroom over lunch, the alarm goes off for a lockdown drill. Ava knows the rules. She has to get herself into a classroom, turn the ringer off on her phone, lock the door, and cover the windows...

George meets Ms. Bixby's Last Day in this inspiring, heartfelt novel-in-verse, the second in a new series from bestselling author K.A. Holt.This second book in a new series by K.A. Holt will appeal to fans of House Arrest, Rhyme Schemer, and Knockout, in addition to fans of Jason Reynolds's Track series.Ben Y's just about had it with school. Every corner she turns, she’s being called "Benita," getting Dress Coded by Mr. Mann for s...

Space-farmer Rae Darling is kidnapped and trained to become a warrior against her own people in this adventurous middle grade space western that “will lasso readers and have them hoping for a sequel” (Booklist).Rae Darling and her family are colonists on a moon so obscure it doesn’t merit a name. Life is hard, water is scarce, and the farm work she does is grueling. But Rae and her sister Temple are faced with an added complication—being female is a seriou...

The difference being that this middle school novel is written entirely in Haiku. Loeb, its zombie protagonist has a problem: the object of his affection, Siobhan, is a lifer (i.e. human). What to do? In scenes set around a lunch table (the menu: brains) and around the school, eyes roll and jaws drop (literally). Also featured in the cast of characters is Carl, a chupacabra (bloodsucking critter) and Mrs. Fincher, a sympathetic and seductive librarian.