8 - 12
Too Cool For This School
Kristen Tracy
A terrific novel about middle school friendship, family, fitting in, and finding out who you are when no one's looking. Lane Cisco loves, loves, loves her life at Rio Chama Middle School—until her offbeat cousin comes for an extended visit and turns everything upside down. With her individual sense of style and nonconformist attitude, Angelina "Mint" Taraval is everything Lane isn't. And instead of branding her a loser the way Lane and her friends expect, people actually want to hang out with her. Including the boys Lane and her best friend, Ava, like. When Ava comes up with a plan to ruin Mint, Lane feels stuck. She doesn't want to be mean . . . but she doesn't really want to stick up for her weird cousin either. Why can't things go back to the way they were before Mint arrived? And don't miss Kristen's other cool books:PROJECT (UN)POPULARPROJECT (UN)POPULAR: TOTALLY CRUSHEDCAMILLE MCPHEE FELL UNDER THE BUSTHE REINVENTION OF BESSICA LEFTERBESSICA LEFTER BITES BACK“Believable and drily funny . . . an empathetic and entertaining read.” —Publishers Weekly “High drama so compelling middle school readers won't realize they're being exposed to a lesson in ethics.” —Kirkus Reviews “Snappy, intelligent prose . . . an excellent title.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books“Kristen Tracy reminds us of our best and worst moments in middle school, handling both the triumphs and the mortifying moments with just the right mix of surprise and worry.” —readergirlz.com
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The Monster in the Mudball
S.P. Gates
A monster is loose in England! And it’s kind of Jin’s fault that Zilombo, the monster, gotloose. Jin tracks the monster, but he can’t figure out how to get her back into the artifact fromwhich she hatched. Then Jin meets Chief Inspector of Ancient Artifacts A. J. Zauyamakanda—Mizz Z, for short—who has arrived to inspect the artifact. She and Jin team up to find Zilombo. Joining them is Frankie, Jin’s older sister, who has lost their baby brother—and Zilombo isthe most likely culprit for his disappearance. Zilombo gains new, frightening powers every timeshe hatches. Now the monster is cleverer than ever before . . . and she likes to eat babies! Will Jin’s baby brother be next on Zilombo’s menu? As the monster’s powers continue togrow, Jin, Frankie, and Mizz Z must find a way to outsmart Zilombo!
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Lara's Gift
Annemarie O'Brien
Young Lara is being groomed in the family tradition to take over as Count Voronstov's next kennel steward, breeding borzoi dogs worthy of the Tsar. But then Lara's baby brother is born and she finds herself supplanted as her father decides to make her brother the next kennel steward. Going against her father's wishes and becoming increasingly sure of her special gift of understanding these incredible dogs, Lara risks everything when she reveals the truth about her visions. Now she must save Zar, her favorite borzoi and the one she raised from birth, from a hungry pack of wolves. Only then can she find her own, extraordinary destiny. . . .
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Spaceheadz (Be SPHDZ Save The World)
Jon Scieszka, Shane Prigmore
The campaign is going well. The SPHDZ word is getting out. 1000's of kids have signed up to say they are SPHDZ. But things haven't gotten any easier for Michael K. The SPHDZ are still trying to blend in to our Earth culture, but not very successfully. They're still mixing up Thanksgiving, cartoon plots, holidays, and commercials. This makes it especially hard for Michael K. to both hide the SPHDZ from Agent Umber and accomplish the SPHDZ Mission. He's forced to enlist the help of fellow fifth graders, Venus and TJ. When they (Michael K. and the SPHDZ) are given the assignment to write and perform the school play, Umber thinks he's closing in on the aliens...the kindergartners playing the turkeys.
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The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit (Randi Rhodes)
Meet Randi Rhodes, the world’s first ninja detective! Mystery abounds in this delightful new middle grade series from Academy Award–winning actress Octavia Spencer.Deer Creek is a small town whose only hope for survival is the success of their Founder’s Day Festival. But the festival’s main attraction, a time capsule that many people believe hold the town’s treasure, has gone missing. Randi Rhodes and her best friend, D.C., are Bruce Lee–inspired ninjas and local detectives determined to solve the case. Even if it means investigating in a haunted cabin and facing mean old Angus McCarthy, prime suspect. They have three days to find the treasure…the future of their whole town is at stake! Will these kids be able to save the day?
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Back to Blackbrick
Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
Cosmo must journey to the past to understand his future in this humorous, heartbreaking, and brilliantly original debut novel.Cosmo’s granddad used to be the cleverest person he ever knew. That is, until his granddad’s mind began to fail. In a rare moment of clarity, his granddad gives Cosmo a key and pleads with Cosmo to go to the South Gates of Blackbrick Abbey, where his granddad promises an “answer to everything.” In the dead of night, Cosmo does just that. When Cosmo unlocks the rusty old gates, he is whisked back to Blackbrick of years past, along with his granddad—now just sixteen-years old and sharp as a tack—beautiful Maggie, and the absolutely dreadful Corporamore family. But much more than time travel adventure awaits Cosmo on the old, sprawling estate: he’ll also discover revealing truths about his granddad, his family, and himself. Abounding with humor and heart, this extraordinary novel is an original, unforgettable story about lost memories, lost times, and lost lives, reclaimed.
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Rooftoppers
Terry Fan, Katherine Rundell
Embrace possibility in this luminous novel about a girl in search of her past who discovers a secret rooftop world in Paris.Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck that left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive—but “almost impossible” means “still possible.” And you should never ignore a possible. So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian, threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, she takes matters into her own hands and flees to Paris to look for her mother, starting with the only clue she has— the address of the cello maker. Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers—urchins who live in the hidden spaces above the city. Together they scour the city in a search for Sophie’s mother—but can they find her before Sophie is caught and sent back to London? Or, more importantly, before she loses hope? Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials series, calls Rooftoppers “the work of a writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination.”
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Runt
Nora Raleigh Baskin
An insightful exploration of middle school bullying from multiple perspectives, by the award-winning author of Anything But Typical.Elizabeth Moon grew up around dogs. Her mom runs a boarding kennel out of their home, so she’s seen how dogs behave to determine pack order. Her experience in middle school is uncomfortably similar. Maggie hates how Elizabeth acts so much better than everyone else. Besides, she’s always covered in dog hair. And she smells. So Maggie creates a fake profile on a popular social networking site to teach Elizabeth a lesson. What makes a bully, and what makes a victim? It’s all in the perspective, and the dynamics shift. From sibling rivalries to mean girl antics, the varying points of view in this illuminating novel from the award-winning author of Anything But Typical show the many shades of gray—because middle school is anything but black and white.
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Shane Prigmore, Jon Scieszka
Don’t miss the stunning, riveting, hilarious, and 100% fresh conclusion to the interactive Spaceheadz saga!The SPHDZ accomplished their goal of recruiting 3.14 million and one SPHDZ. But the brainwave has been stolen by the chief of the Anti Alien Agency, and it’s up to Michael K., the SPHDZ, and their allies to get it back. With three potential Chief sightings, the team is spread around the world, leaving Michael K., Venus, TJ, and the SPHDZ to hold down the fort and finish fifth grade. But with a mysterious new principal and graduation fast approaching, will they be able to find the missing brainwave before the Chief uses it to destroy a planet?
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Dead City (Blue Moon)
James Ponti
Molly is ready for more nonstop, undead action in this follow-up to Dead City, which Kirkus Reviews described as “a fast-paced read for those who like their zombies with just a little fright.”When Molly Bigelow discovered that zombies shared New York with humans, she didn’t think life could get more shocking. Then she learned that her mother was once one of the greatest zombie killers ever—and she discovered that her dead mother is not technically dead at all (although she isn’t alive, either). Molly’s efforts to keep these secrets and to help her Omega team track down the identity of the original thirteen zombies will take her from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Her loyalties to friends and family will be put to the test. And her life will be changed in ways she never could have imagined.
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