"A grab bag of deliciously dark short fiction set in middle school that explores anxieties and twists them into funny, resonant, and reassuring psychological thrills"--

Seventh-grader Ben, always an outsider, is led into a deep friendship with Halley, who is being treated for cancer, by the special dog he and his adoptive mother take in.

Sixth-grader Carter must adjust to the unwelcome presence of a know-it-all butler who is determined to help him become a gentleman, and also to deal with burdens from the past.

Sixth grader Lucy is brand-new to middle school, and when her older sister GiGi--the undisputed queen bee of eighth grade--humiliates her in the cafeteria, Lucy snaps and challenges her to a fencing duel.

Told in alternating voices, the teacher and students in room 117 find their lives changed over the course of a school year.

"Link, Michael, and Dana live in a quiet town. But it's woken up very quickly when someone sneaks into school and vandalizes it with a swastika. Nobody can believe it. How could such a symbol of hate end up in the middle of their school? Who would do such a thing? Because Michael was the first person to see it, he's the first suspect. Because Link is one of the most popular guys in school, everyone's looking to him to figure it out. And because Dana's...

August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid -- but his classmates can't get past Auggie's extraordinary face. Wonder begins from Auggie's point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of...

"A collection of ten short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school"--

Twelve-year-old Kyana bakes up a plan to keep her inner-city magic school open after redistricting and gentrification threaten to close it down. Twelve-year-old Kyana has just discovered she's a witch! This means classes every Saturday at Park Row Magic Academy, a learning center hidden in the back of the local beauty shop, and Kyana can't wait to learn spells to help out at home. The only downside is having to keep her magic a secret from her BFF,...

In an alternate San Antonio, there have been no known cases of vampirism since a group of masked vampire hunters called the Vanquishers wiped out the last horde of the undead twenty years ago, but twelve-year-old Malika "Boog" Wilson's parents are not taking any chances, especially when Boog's new classmate Aaron goes missing.