Ida B. Applewood believes there is never enough time for fun.That's why she's so happy to be homeschooled and to spend every free second outside with the trees and the brook. Then some not-so-great things happen in her world. Ida B has to go back to that Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture—school. She feels her heart getting smaller and smaller and hardening into a sharp, black stone. How can things go from righter than right to a million miles beyond wrong? Can Ida B put together a plan to get things back to just-about perfect again?

In the nonstop sequel to Jimmy Coates: Assassin? Jimmy is still being hunted by NJ7. He escaped from them once, but the government agency that created him won't let their eleven-year-old superassassin go. NJ7 want him working for them, or they want him dead.Jimmy knows he'll never be a normal kid again. Too much has happened already. He struggles with the knowledge that he is only 38 percent human and created to kill. He is determined that if he can't be normal, at least he won't become a killer.But someone from Jimmy's past —someone who can run, jump, and fight like Jimmy—is coming for him. And this teenage assassin doesn't share Jimmy's aversion to killing.

Stuff. My head's full of it. I don't even know where most of it comes from. I just seem to pick it up, like my brain emits a special sort of tractor beam that locks on to pointless information. But in the face of my problems, all the extra stuff is proving useless. What problems? you ask. I shall tell you.Problem 1: The invasion of my home. Dad's new girlfriend moved in, and, even worse, she brought along her daughter, who has no sense of humor and no taste in music.Problem 2: My girlfriend, Delfine. Her brother would break both my arms if I broke up with her. Problem 3: The new girl at school. Stunning. Gorgeous. Willowy. My Destiny (but see Problem 2).Problem 4: My comic strip. At first it was cool to anonymously author the strip in the school paper, but now that everyone suspects who they are in the strip, I run the risk of getting my legs broken in addition to my arms (see above).Clearly, I need to plan The Great Escape!Part hilarious musings, part graphic novel, stuff is the quirky exposé of a fourteen-year-old boy who, let's face it, could use a little help.

In this Newbery Honor-winning novel, Gary D. Schmidt offers an unforgettable antihero. THE WEDNESDAY WARS is a wonderfully witty and compelling story about a teenage boy’s mishaps and adventures over the course of the 1967–68 school year.Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling—he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? A bully demanding cream puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing autographs the very same night Holling has to appear in a play in yellow tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again, Holling finds Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.