Amelia Louise McBride's eleventh birthday party is fabulous, but soon her friends are fighting all the time, she gets a terrible report card, and when she summons the courage to tell a boy how she feels about him, she learns why it is called a "crush."

The first year of middle school can be exciting, or scarey, just ask Ginny.

Punky Brewster, a bright eight-year-old girl, has been abandoned by her mother and lives on the streets of Chicago with her puppy sidekick Brandon. Punky thinks she doesn't need help, but after getting picked up by the police, she enters a foster home and starts to search for a family. Punky meets Henry, a long-lost relative, and decides he's the adoptive dad for her. All she has to do is convince the foster home, adoption judges and lawyers, and possibly Henry himself.

Self-proclaimed middle school expert and life coach Max Corrigan offers advice and practical tips on such topics as how and why to join cliques, how to deal with gym class, pretending to be sick, and acing tests without being caught cheating. Includes comic-style illustrations.

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

bbed a "reluctant reader" by his teacher, twelve-year-old Derek spends summer vacation learning important lessons even though he does not complete his summer reading list.

In her diary, Daphne Davis doodles, draws, and documents a series of disasters on her first two days of fourth grade, most of which result from her new teacher accidentally calling her Daffy.

A strange combination of Ebenezer Scrooge and Lego Batman helps Rob Burnside save his school.

Things are going pretty well for Rob Burnside until Pinocula--a cross between Pinocchio and a vampire--emerges from his closet, lying, joking, and doing his best to drive Rob crazy.

"Ten-year-old Celie has quite a few things on her mind--fights with her sister Jo, secrets at school, an increasingly forgetful grandmother, and worst of all, a best friend who won't speak to her. How can a girl who hates change survive, when everything in her life is changing? By writing, of course. Celie's often comical and always heartfelt diary entries include notes, e-mails, homework assignments, and pages from her top-secret spy notebook."