Middle School Literature

Warning: Short Stories for Middle School Boys Only, Because Girls Have Cooties! is a captivating anthology of fifteen standalone stories, each one a unique exploration of youth, camaraderie, and the trials and triumphs of growing up. The book, penned by the talented Gene J. Miller, is a delightful blend of Tom Sawyer's mischief, Stand by Me's nostalgia, and The Sandlot's youthful exuberance.

Twelve-year-old Mikey Pruitt - president, founder, and CEO of Anything, Inc. - has always been an entrepreneur at heart. Inspired by his grandfather Pap Pruitt, who successfully ran all sorts of businesses from a car wash to a roadside peanut stand, Mikey is still looking for his million-dollar idea. It isn't until kid drag queen Coco Caliente, Mistress of Madness and Mayhem (aka eighth grader Julian Vasquez) walks into his office (aka his family's storage/laundry room) looking for an agent that Mikey thinks he's finally found his million-dollar idea!

Bud Collins can't win at anything. His daughter calls him a loser, his ex is taking him to the cleaners, and he can't beat his bookie. Getting lucky with women is also a lost cause until a strange package from his eccentric uncle arrives in the mail and offers him the opportunity of a lifetime. Bud suddenly sees a way to make a fortune and turn his miserable life around, if he doesn’t destroy it first, because there are people like the greedy loan shark, the deranged hit man, and a wicked cast of others who don’t want him to succeed at all costs.

When Natty’s mom kind of takes a break from her dad and sort of the whole family, Natty and her dad move to his childhood hometown of Miller Creek. Now she’s starting middle school for the second time, this time in Miller Creek—without her mom—or her BFF. But Natty’s doing great! Really. Anything is possible. And what’s the point of dwelling on the stuff that stinks when there’s so much good stuff to think about? Natty is absolutely, positively sure that she can turn it all around. Like 1,000 percent sure. As long as she stays absolutely positive!

New York Times best-selling author Nikki Grimes has received numerous accolades for her writing, including the Coretta Scott King Award. In Planet Middle School, 12-year-old Joylin Johnson is satisfied with her life. Everything seems pretty simple: a nice, relaxed game of basketball with the boys is all she needs to keep her happy. But it all changes when her best girlfriend starts flirting with her best guy friend.

When Zack’s younger sister dies in a tragic accident, his family moves to a small town in the Northwest to try and heal from all the pain. Eleven-year-old Zack blames himself for his sister’s death, and he struggles to find any comfort in his new surroundings. Zack, at first, feels lost in Vista Point. Until he meets Ann, a girl who lives in the area and shows Zack all the special places to be discovered. But there’s something that seems a bit strange about Ann - and perhaps a secret she is keeping from him.

Eleven-year-old Kylie’s friends seem so much more mature than she is. And with middle school just a summer away, she’s worried her friends might leave her behind, especially because she keeps embarrassing them. So Kylie applies her scientific brain to solve the problem and comes up with the Everybody Experiment.

Austin Davenport is back in the mayhemiest adventure yet! Austin's world is forever changed when he learns that nerds have one chance to transform themselves into cool kids. And that's by starting a band. When Austin and his crew get fed up at being even less popular than the kid in the marching band who wears his shoes on the wrong feet, they decide to take matters into their own hands.

After defeating the necromancers and bringing alchemy back to the Alexandria Academy, Shad Hadid is ready for an exciting second term at school. It doesn’t hurt that he’s being called a hero, but the new lessons are harder than he expected and his mentor, Kahem, is nowhere to be found. When Shad intercepts a letter from an informant with a possible clue for thwarting the necromancers’ evil plans once and for all, he's determined to help. Joined by his friends, Shad embarks on a perilous journey across Lebanon to track down this secretive stranger.

Strange things are happening at Lovecraft Middle School. Rats are leaping from lockers. Students are disappearing. The school library is a labyrinth of secret corridors. And the science teacher is acting very peculiar - in fact, he just might be a monster-in-disguise. Twelve-year-old Robert Arthur knew that seventh grade was going to be weird, but this is ridiculous!

Middle school is hard. Your bodies are changing, your friends are changing, classes are harder, and tough things happen. This “support group in a book” is specifically geared to you. Read stories written by kids just like you, about their middle school years, and: true friends and new friends; mean girls... and boys!; embarrassing moments; bully payback; crushes and young love; being happy with yourself; tough times; family issues; doing what’s right and lots more!

It's Halloween: Candy-snatching time. For the past few years, twelve-year-old Jonas and his friends have competed to see how much candy they can snatch from unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. No one’s supposed to get hurt. So Jonas is taken by surprise when one of his smaller targets fights back against his candy-snatching attempt. He’s even more surprised when he starts to receive anonymous notes from someone who seems to know what happened that night.

Rylee Swanson is beginning eighth grade with zero friends. A humiliating moment at the end-of-seventh-grade pool party involving a cannonball, a waterlogged updo, and some disappearing clothes has Rylee halfway convinced she’s better off without any friends—at least friends like those. The one question Rylee can’t shake is . . . why? When a group assignment in journalism pairs Rylee with science geek DeNia Alonso, DeNia’s annoyingly know-it-all, nerdy personality is both frustration and fuel to Rylee’s search for answers.

Every time violence erupts in the Middle East, Ida knows what's coming next. Some of her classmates treat her like it's all her fault—just for being Palestinian! In eighth grade, Ida is forced to move to a different school. But people still treat her like she'll never fit in. Ida wishes she could disappear. One day, dreading a final class project, Ida hunts for food. She discovers a jar of olives that came from a beloved aunt in her family's village near Jerusalem. Ida eats one and finds herself there—as if her parents had never left Palestine!

Twelve-year-old Jeff Michaels, son of a Philadelphia TV sports reporter, is just learning to play soccer on the new sixth-grade team at his middle school. Andrea Carillo has fought her way onto the squad, but the coach doesn’t think girls should play with boys, so she’s riding the bench with Jeff - even though she’s one of the best players.

From fourteen-year-old author Brayden Harrington, the young boy who electrified the nation when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2020, comes a fictional middle grade contemporary story about a boy named Jayson who stutters and the challenges he faces and the obstacles he must overcome as he campaigns for student-body president.

No one dares to leave the District - the towering structure of glass and steel that is their protection against the unruly bands of Outsiders that roam Mundreel and the deadly rain that carries the disease that kills all over the age of 19. This skyscraper stands amid the urban devastation, the city rumored to have once been called "Montreal". Esther and her allies have created a haven on the rooftop, a garden that flourishes, and a home for her new baby, hidden from all but the very few who know her secret.

All Margie Majors ever wanted was the mythical American dream she was taught to want: a hard-working husband, a house in a place that had neighborhood BBQs, a white picket fence, two kids, and a dog. Instead, she got “destiny.” Hers was to be a plus-sized, day-drinking, foul-mouthed, bisexual, retired vampire slayer with crushing debt and no idea what to do with the rest of her life.

As Michelle Baron ascends the steps of Magnolia Middle School, her life is about to change forever. The dream of becoming a teacher leads her on an unexpected journey that will challenge her professionally and personally. Although 180 students file through her classroom daily, one demands her attention more than the others. Living in her third foster home in a year, Amber's bitterness and rebellion spark a challenge within Michelle to somehow make a difference in this troubled girl's life.

For over five decades, Ruskin Bond has written charming tales that have mesmerized people of all ages. This collection brings together his finest stories for children in one volume. Published previously as a Treasury of Stories for Children, this attractive edition includes two new stories: "The Big Race" and "Remember This Day". Filled with a rich cast of characters, The Room of Many Colours, A Treasury of Stories for Children is the definitive book for all Ruskin Bond fans truly a collector's item.