A schoolgirl named Shizuku, who longs to discover her true talents, meets the mysterious Seiji, a boy who is determined to follow his dreams, and The Baron, a magical cat who helps her listen to the whispers in her heart.

Chrissa Maxwell moves to a new school in the middle of the year, and the girls in her fourth-grade class are decidedly unfriendly. On the advice of her grandmother, Chrissa tries first to be nice, and then to ignore the mean girls. But they just won't quit, and when the teasing turns into serious bullying, Chrissa must find the courage to stand strong and speak out.

"Allegations against his father turn eleven-year-old Rodney's life upside down in a powerful and surprisingly funny novel about new beginnings, new friendships and a fresh new look at the way things really are, by critically acclaimed author Susan Juby. Eleven-year-old Rodney is starting sixth grade in a new school, in a new home in a new state. The new school is really old and smells like someone ate a couple of pounds of glue and then barfed it...

"It's the start of the school year, and nothing feels right to Justin. He didn't get the teacher he wanted, he's not in the same class as his best friend, and his little sister, Elizabeth, is starting kindergarten at his school. Elizabeth doesn't seem nervous at all. Justin is very nervous about third grade. And to top it off, he's lost his favorite stuffed animal, but he can't tell anyone, because technically he's too old to still have stuffed animals....

Chrissa Maxwell's had a good summer, practicing for swim team tryouts. Then her world is shaken when she and her friends get mean text messages and there's an accident at the pool. Can one girl put an end to the bullying?

Sam and Hammie Rex discover a terrifying giant squirrel hiding in the woods behind Horace Hotwater Middle School. But nobody else believes Squirrel Kong is real. Then Hammie Rex takes the blame for Squirrel Kong's destructive rampages, and the principal threatens to send him away to home for dangerous, troubled small pets. To save his hamster friend, can Sam prove that Squirrel Kong is the true menace?

This is the author's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program. During the first semester in sixth grade, Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, this is a story of a more profound hunger - that of...

"Although she is shy and quiet, Kitty likes going to school--and this is all due to her loving teacher, Miss Seabrooke. Only Miss Seabrooke knows the right way to open her thermos, do up her jacket and sing songs to the class. And only Miss Seabrooke is always there when Kitty needs a hug. So imagine Kitty's desperation when she arrives at school one morning and Miss Seabrooke is nowhere to be found. Instead, her comfortable routine has been thrown...