Middle School Bites Tom Bites Back

When a nerdy, unpopular high school senior notices his resemblance to Bob Dylan, he leaves home for Greenwich Village, in 1963, to become a folk singer.

Jonathan Starling's father is in an asylum and his home has been attacked when, while running away from kidnappers, he stumbles upon Darkside, a terrifying and hidden part of London ruled by the descendants of Jack the Ripper, where Jonathan is in mortal danger if he cannot find the way out.

Heather Nuhfer and P.C. Morrissey team up in this fun story about game night with the Titans! The Titans have a regular game of Basements and Basilisks, but when the basement boss (Robin, of course) tries to make the game super fun by making it super-impossible to win, the team rebels. Their new BB is much more fun-and she actually lets them complete their quests, which is excellent motivation to keep playing. But the Boy Wonder begins to worry that the Titans will be trapped in their imaginations forever, going on endless, easy-breezy quests, neglecting their duties in Jump City. There might also be problems with the campaign's most important relic, the "Anklet of Extreme Crushing (and Chafing)," which Robin has tightly clasped to his leg.

From bestselling and National Book Award-winning author M. T. Anderson comes the paperback reissue of a middle-grade adventure starring two of the most disarmingly deadpan boys you'll ever meet.When Brian and Gregory receive an invitation to stay at a distant relative's strange manse . . . well, they should know better than to go, but since this is a middle-grade adventure novel, they go anyway. Why not? Once there, they stumble upon The Game of Sunken Places, a board game that mirrors a greater game for which they have suddenly became players. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches. Luckily, they have wit, deadpan observation, and a keen sense of adventure on their side.

A frightening suspense novel about nine-year-old Trisha, who becomes lost in the woods as night falls.

Kerry Winfrey's funny and honest young adult novel, Things Jolie Needs to Do Before She Bites It Jolie’s a lot of things, but she knows that pretty isn’t one of them. She has mandibular prognathism, which is the medical term for underbite. Chewing is a pain, headaches are a common occurrence, and she’s never been kissed. She’s months out from having a procedure to correct her underbite, and she cannot wait to be fixed. Jolie becomes paralyzed with the fear that she could die under the knife. She and her best friends, Evelyn and Derek, decide to make a “Things Jolie Needs to Do Before She Bites It (Which Is Super Unlikely, but Still, It Could Happen)” list. Things like: eat every appetizer on the Applebee’s menu and kiss her crush Noah Reed. But since when did everything ever go exactly to plan? Filled with humor, heart—and an honest look at today’s beauty standards—Jolie’s journey is a true feel-good story. Praise for Things Jolie Needs to Do Before She Bites It: "Numerous laugh-aloud moments don’t lessen the potency of the story’s messages about beauty’s subjectivity and overcoming fears. Readers will gleefully cheer Jolie on as she learns to appreciate herself for who she is." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "The author has a light touch with heavy topics and has crafted a funny and relatable lead, well-developed secondary characters, and great story lines. This is a brisk read with real insight into friendships and young romance. Readers will want to spend their time with Jolie, her family, and her friends." —School Library Journal

Kirk Scroggs, writer and artist of The Secret Spiral of Swamp Kid, introduces a new type of best friend! Casey has always loved monster movies; in fact, he considers himself something of an expert on the subject. He spends his day doing normal kid things, like attending school and riding his bike around his town of Serena Mar-and filling his journal with helpful ways to take care of the various monsters who live all around them, who no one else seems to know exist. But as Casey delves deeper into the history of his spooky friends-or are they fiends?-he uncovers more than just skeletons in the closet. Turns out there’s a Frankenstein and maybe a werewolf tucked in there, too! And he’s just starting to wonder if it’s possible that his new friend, Zandra, has a secret of her own, as well... We Found a Monster is a fun, funny, and fast-paced tale about learning what true friendship is, and respecting the secrets we all have inside.

Before he wrote the bestselling 100 Cupboards trilogy and Ashtown Burials series, N. D. Wilson delighted readers with his first unforgettable action-adventure story of survival. . . . Thomas Hammond has always lived next to Leepike Ridge, but he never imagined he might end up lost beneath it! The night Tom’s schoolteacher comes to dinner and asks Tom’s mother to marry him, Tom slips out of the house and escapes down a nearby stream on a floating slab of packing foam. The night and stars lull Tom to sleep, and when he wakes, he has ridden his foam raft all the way to the ridge, where the stream dives underground. Flung over rapids and tossed through chasms, Tom finally hits shore, sore but alive. What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge—a dog, a flashlight, a castaway, a tomb, and buried treasure—will answer questions he hadn’t known to ask, and change his life forever. Now, if only he can find his way home again. . . . In the grand tradition of Robinson Crusoe, Hatchet, and Tom Sawyer, N. D. Wilson’s first book for young readers is a remarkable adventure, a journey through the dark and back into the light. A New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing “This is a ripping good adventure yarn. . . . Here’s the perfect remedy for any summer that’s been disappointingly short on thrills.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Starred “Wilson’s debut is a literate, sometimes humorous page-turner in the classic tradition. Well-read adventure lovers are in for a treat looking for echoes of The Odyssey and Tom Sawyer.”—Kirkus Reviews “Tom’s adventures have several literary ancestors, including Tom and Huck in the cave, and the inventive Swiss Family Robinson, but this is solidly set in the present, standing on its own with well-crafted suspense and fascinating survival detail. . . . [M]iddle-grade readers will also relish the physicality of the journey: underwater swims, tight passages, and rock climbing. . . . [An] appealing and easy-to-booktalk package.”—Booklist “Wilson sets the scene vividly, from Tom’s home to the labyrinth of tunnels and caverns under the mountain, and the central characters’ emotional lives develop both naturally and affectingly. [Readers] will appreciate both the fast-paced adventure and Tom’s determination to make the impossible journey back home.”—The Horn Book Magazine “Wilson’s rich imagination and his quirky characters are a true delight.”—School Library Journal