5.4/9 Adam Canfield of the Slash Winerip, Michael. While serving as co-editors of their school newspaper, middle-schoolers Adam and Jennifer uncover fraud and corruption in their school and in the city's government. Late for math club, late for jazz band, late for soccer-Adam Canfield has to be the most overprogrammed middle-school student in America. So when super-organized Jennifer coaxes him to be coeditor of the Slash-Harris Elementary/Middle School's student newspaper-he wonders if he's made a big mistake. Not only do editors get stuck with assigning stories (like an investigative report on the edibility of cafeteria food), but they also have to deal with annoying third graders like Phoebe, always pushing for a front-page slot. But when Phoebe's article on Eddie the janitor leads to a much bigger scoop-an eccentric woman's mysterious gift to the school-Adam and Jennifer rise to the challenge, risking their principal's wrath to uncover some shocking secrets. Along with a charming cast of characters and plenty of kid-friendly humor, New York Times education columnist Michael Winerip sneaks in some lessons about truth and cover-ups, personal integrity, and the rush that comes from breaking a really great story.
4.4// Airball My Life in Briefs Harkrader, L. D. Uncoordinated Kansas seventh-grader Kirby Nickel braves his coach's ire and becomes captain of the basketball team in order to help him prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he has never known.
3.7/3 Animal House and Iz - Hicks, Betty. Iz, formerly known as Elizabeth, has begun to enjoy the pandemonium of a spacey stepmother, mischeivous stepbrothers, and an assortment of odd and unreliable pets.
4.3/8 Bad Girls Voight, Cynthia. After meeting on the first day in Mrs. Chemsky's fifth-grade class, Margalo and Mikey help each other in and out of trouble, as they try to maintain a friendship while each asserts her independence.
4.0/4 Born Too Short Elish, Dan. Thirteen-year-old Matt is so envious of his best friend Keith that he wishes things would go badly for him, so when Keith's fortune changes while at the same time Matt finds his first true girlfriend, Matt is overcome with guilt.
4.7/6 Car Trouble DuPrau, Jeanne. Early one August morning, seventeen-year-old computer "nerd" Duff Pringle leaves Richmond, Virginia, in a newly-acquired used car and begins an unexpectedly convoluted journey to San Jose, California, and the job that awaits him there.
5.0/3 Chuck and Danielle Dickinson, Peter. Danielle's pet whippet, Chuck, is terrified of absolutely everything, but Danielle is sure that Chuck is going to save the universe one day.
4.4/8 Click Here (to find out how I survived seventh grade) Vega, Denise. Seventh-grader Erin Swift writes about her friends and classmates in her private blog, but when it accidentally gets posted on the school Intranet site, she learns some important lessons about friendship. Imagine if all your personal thoughts about crushes, fears, enemies, and even kissing practice ended up on the internet for everyone to read! That's what happens to Erin Swift when her secret blog lands on the school Web site. As if navigating the treacherous waters of seventh grade weren't enough! Writing with warm, knowing humor, first-time novelist Denise Vega perfectly captures life from a seventh grade girl's point of view.
4.8/5 Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen Anderson, M. T. Sequel to Whales on Stilts. Looking forward to a vacation, Katie, Lily, and Jasper attach their flying Gyroscopic Sky Suite to the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort, where they mingle with other child heroes found in books, and where they become embroiled in a mystery involving lederhosen-clothed quintuplets and a screaming ventriloquist.
5.6/6 Donuthead Stauffacher, Sue. Franklin Delano Donutheat, a fifth-grader obsessed with hygiene and safety, finds an unlikely friend and protector in Sarah Kervick, the tough new student who lives in a dirty trailer, bonds with his mother, and is as "irregular" as he is.
4.3/3 Everyone Else's Parents Said Yes Danziger, Paula. Matthew cannot resist the temptation to play practical jokes on his older sister and all the girls in his class at school, so by the time of the big party for his eleventh birthday they have all declared war on him.
4.7/4 Fair Weather Peck, Richard. In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.
5.6/4 Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe Harrington, Jane. Written in the form of letters to her best friend, Delia, back home, Brady tells of her adventures while on a Mediterranean cruise with her mother, and her progress on Delia's list of things she must do, including the search for a "code-red Euro-hottie."
4.4/4 Freaky Friday Rodgers, Mary. A thirteen-year-old girl gains a much more sympathetic understanding of her relationship with her mother when she has to spend a day in her mother's body.
5.4/2 Frindle Clement, Andrew. When he decides to turn his fifth grade teacher's love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control.
4.1/2 Get Rich Quick Club Gutman, Dan. Summer vacation in their small Maine town does not look too promising until twelve-year-old Gina and four of her friends make a pact to become millionaires before school starts in September.
5.2/7 Great Brain Fitzgerald, John D. Tom D. Fitzgerald is the Great Brain. Many people regret their confrontation with Tom's great brain, but others know that his great brain never fails to find a way home.
5.7/5 Harris and Me Paulsen, Gary. Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city boy meets his distant cousin Harris and is given an introduction to a whole new world.
5.1/4 Here Lies the Librarian Peck, Richard. Fourteen-year-old Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians.
4.9/2 Hoboken Chicken Emergency Pinkwater, Daniel Manus. Arthur Bobowicz of Hoboken, New Jersey is given $16.00 and the important task of buying this year's Thanksgiving turkey, a really big one, since the entire family will be coming for Thanksgiving dinner. But when he gets to the meat market, there are no turkeys left...no chickens or ducks or fowl of any kind. As he walks the streets trying to figure out what to do, he comes across a sign in an apartment house window, Professor Mazzocchi Inventor of the Chicken System, and thinks to himself that this looks promising. The Professor tells him he's in luck, takes his money, hands him a large chicken and slams the door yelling, "No refunds!" Unfortunately, what Arthur is holding is not a dinner chicken, but a 266 pound, live chicken wearing a leash, named Henrietta.
4.8/4 Homework Machin Gutman, Dan. Four fifth-grade students--a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker--as well as their teacher and mothers, each relate events surrounding a computer programmed to complete homework assignments.
6.0/3 How Angel Peterson Got His Name Paulsen, Gary. The author relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.
5.6/7 Lily B. On the Brink of Cool Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody. "The eventually internationally recognized writer Lily Blennerhassett" spends her thirteenth summer missing her best friend and keeping a journal of her boring life at home and exciting newly-discovered relatives.
5.1/11 Lioness and Her Knight Morris, Gerald. Headstrong sixteen-year-old Lady Luneta and her distant cousin, Sir Ywain, travel to Camelot and beyond finding more adventure than they hoped for until, with the help of a fool, Luneta discovers what she really wants from life.
5.0/5 Long Way from Chicago Peck, Richard. A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.
5.2/6 Lunch Money Clements, Andrew. Twelve-year-old Greg, who has always been good at moneymaking projects, is surprised to find himself teaming up with his lifelong rival, Maura, to create a series of comic books to sell at school.
3.8/6 A Midsummer Night's Dork Gorman, Carol. Jerry Flack, recently-elected sixth-grade president, organizes an Elizabethan festival at school but accepts a challenge from a bully that may mean he will once again be considered a "dork."
4.3/6 The Naked Mole-Rat Letters Amato, Mary. When her father begins a long-distance romance with a Washington, D.C. zookeeper, twelve-year-old Frankie sends fabricated email letters to the zookeeper in an attempt to end the relationship.
3.6/5 Never Mind! Avi. Twelve-year-old New York City twins Meg and Edward have nothing in common, so they are just as shocked as everyone else when Meg's hopes for popularity and Edward's mischievous schemes coincidentally collide in a hilarious showdown.
4.5/5 No More Dead Dogs Korman, Gordon. Eighth grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where in spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest things that improve not only the play but his life as well.
5.6/8 Ordinary Jack Crsswell, Helen. Eleven-year-old Jack, the only "ordinary" member of the talented and eccentric Bagthorpe family, concocts a scheme to distinguish himself as a modern-day prophet.
4.9/9 Out of Patience Meehl, Brian. Twelve-year-old Jake Waters cannot wait to escape the small town of Patience, Kansas, until the arrival of a cursed toilet plunger causes him to reevaluate his feelings toward his family and its
4.5/1 Rosy Cole's Memoir Explosion Greenwald, Sheila. When Rosy writes a memoir about herself and her friends for a school assignment, she is surprised when they are not thrilled with the result.
4.0/3 The (Short) Story of My Life Jones, Jennifer B. With both the help and hindrance of family, his best friend, and the school bully, sixth-grader Michael Jordan copes with romance and the fact that he is, as usual, the shortest one in his class.
4.3/3 Sixth Grade Nickname Game Korman, Gordon. Eleven-year-old best friends Jeff and Wiley, who like to give nicknames to their classmates, try to find the right one for the new girl Cassandra, while adjusting to the football coach who has become their new teacher.
4.4/2 Soup Peck, Robert Newton. Life is full of fun and adventure when you have a friend like Soup. This is the first of a series of Peck's autobiographical novels about growing up in Vermont in the 1920s.
3.8/9 Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time Yee, Lisa. After flunking sixth-grade English, basketball prodigy Stanford Wong must struggle to pass his summer-school class, keep his failure a secret from his friends, and satisfy his academically demanding father.
4.7/6 The Teacher's Funeral Peck, Richard. In rural Indiana in 1904, fifteen-year-old Russell's dreams of quitting school and joining a wheat threshing crew are disrupted when his older sister takes over the teaching at his one-room schoolhouse after mean old Myrt Arbuckle "hauls off and dies."
5.2/9 Watsons Go to Birmingham1963 Curtis, Christopher Paul. The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
3.9/2 Whipping Boy Fleischman, Sid. A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws
4.5/4 A Year Down Yonder Peck, Richard. During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman. Sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. Newberry Award winner 2001.
5.5/3 Younguncle Comes to Town Singh, Vandana. In a small town in northern India, three siblings await their father's youngest brother, Younguncle, who is said to be somewhat eccentric.