Jerry Spinelli

As Palmer comes of age, he must either accept the violence of being a wringer at his town's annual Pigeon Day or find the courage to oppose it.

Mourning the loss of his mother, nine-year-old David forms an unlikely friendship with independent, quirky thirteen-year-old Primrose, as the two help each other deal with what is missing in their lives.

"Jake and Lily are twins and have always felt the same -- like two halves of one person -- but the year they turn eleven and Jake begins hanging out with Bump Stubbins, everything changes"--

After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries. From the Publisher: He wasn't born with the name Maniac Magee. He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend. Even today kids talk about how fast he could run; about how he hit an inside-the-park "frog"...

Now that he is in the fourth grade, Suds learns that a fear of spiders or a babyish lunchbox will never get him into the coveted group, the Fourth Grade Rats.

When the school assigns each eighth-grader the name of a teenager who died in the past year as a lesson in mortality, Worm Tarnauer, who thrives on being invisible, doesn't count on Becca Finch, the seventeen-year-old car crash victim who changes everything.

What is stargazer, skateboarder, chess champ, pepperoni pizza eater, older brother, sister hater, best friend, first kisser, science geek, control freak Will Tuppence so afraid of in this great big universe? Jerry Spinelli knows.

Last year, Masie Potter was voted most outstanding seventh grade female athlete. She is a super basketball player. But last summer, she developed a crush on classmate Eric Delong. Now her priorities have changed. She will do anything to be near Eric-even join the wrestling team. From the first, Masie gets opposition and antagonism from all sides: friends, classmates, teachers. Soon, her place on the team isn't about Eric any more. It's about determination,...

Crash Coogan is a big jock. As long as he can remember, he has crashed through life, running over anyone or anything that stands in his way. So when the geeky pacifist kid Penn Webb moves onto his block, Crash immediately ridicules everything about him-including his friendship. Now a burly seventh grader, Crash scores spectacular touchdowns in each football game while Penn becomes a cheerleader. Crash saves money to buy the coolest pair of sneakers...

Newbery medalist Jerry Spinelli has penned his early autobiography with all the warmth, humor, and drama of his bestselling fiction. "A master of those embarrassing, gloppy, painful, and suddenly wonderful things that happen on the razor's edge between childhood and full-fledged adolescence" -The Washington Post From first memories through high school, including first kiss, first punch, first trip to the principal's office, and first humiliating...