When Rafe Khatchadorian enters middle school, he teams up with his best friend, "Leo the Silent," to create a game to make school more fun by trying to break every rule in the school's code of conduct.

Middle schooler Charlie Joe is proud of his success at avoiding reading, but eventually his schemes go too far.

Eleven-year-old Cyrus knows he is not cut out to be a football hero or fireman like his adopted father, but it takes a skittish stray dog to teach him that he, too, can be brave.

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.

Seattle fourth-grader McKenna Brooks, who lives for gymnastics, struggles with school work until Josie, a tutor confined to a wheelchair, helps her with reading comprehension and much more.

"Mad Purdy has agreed to teach a chemistry class for middle-school students at her hometown library. The birds are already gathering, but nobody takes note until the network goes down and one of the librarians goes outside to check the lines. The birds descend quickly, with gruesome results. All Mad wants is to protect these kids, but she also has to contend with being trapped in a building with her peers, people she had been friends with before and...