Jerry Spinelli

After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life--and his name--changes. Maniac Magee appears in Two Mills looking ragged and undernourished, and the kids make fun of him until they see him on the football field. But somehow, despite his own problems, Maniac Magee manages to bring a new direction to everyone he encounters along his path.

He's a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham -- He's a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He's a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He's a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels He's a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. When the trains come to empty the Jews...

Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.

Will Tuppence's life has always been ruled by science and common sense, but in ninth grade, shaken up by the discovery that protons decay, he begins to see the entire world differently and gains new perspective on his relationships with his little sister and two closest friends.

"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"--Publisher.

Still moping months after being dumped by her Arizona boyfriend Leo, fifteen-year-old Stargirl, a home-schooled free spirit, writes "the world's longest letter" to Leo, describing her new life in Pennsylvania.

George "Suds" Morton competes with his third-grade classmates to earn the first "halo" of the year for good behavior, but being good turns out to be more stressful than he anticipated. Includes an excerpt from Fourth grade rats.

Thirteen-year-old Maisie joins her school's formerly all-male wrestling team and tries to last through the season, despite opposition from other students, her best friend, and her own teammates.

Four totally different kids have only one thing in common--they're all about to report to the principal's office.

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.