The Classroom The Epic Documentary Of A Not Yet Epic Kid

Trevor Jones has been looking forward to seventh grade all summer, but when his best friend Libby tells him that he HAS to ask a girl out to the fall dance--his bright outlook suddenly takes a turn. It also doesn't help that there's documentary crew to film his every awkward move. Modern Family meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid in The Classroom, a new middle grade series full of heart, laughs, and awkward documentary footage.

A documentary crew has descended upon Westside Middle School to detail the life of an average seventh grader named Trevor Jones and his classmates. Using one-on-one interviews and film footage, as well as notebook drawings, blueprints, clipboard sketches, and doodles, they will tell the story of one school's tricked-out makeover. Say good-bye to those squeaky seats, and hello to...beanbag chairs? Find out what happens when a second film crew arrives and Trevor is forced to confront his no-change policy to help his best friend, Libby Gardner, trick out their school. When the paint finally dries, it will be epic.

A documentary crew has descended upon Westside Middle School to detail the life of an average seventh grader named Trevor Jones and his classmates. The one-on-one interviews, film footages, and camp journals will chronicle the dangerous and highly awkward overnight field trip to Camp Whispering Pines. Trevor Jones will have plenty to worry about: snakes, bears, dining halls, and...eighth graders. To make matters worse, Trevor is paired with a special "sensitivity buddy"—longtime frenemy Corey Long. It's possible that with a lot of luck (and a little help), Trevor Jones might come out of this trip alive. If he can survive Corey Long and the outdoors, he may finally have a chance at being epic.

Libby Gardner and Cindy Applegate are smile-without-teeth friends, but they are fierce rivals when it comes to politics. Cindy owned the student council elections in fourth and sixth grades, while Libby came out on top in fifth. Now, they both hunger for the prestigious title of seventh grade class president. But middle school elections have their own rules...and pressures. When Trevor Jones is forced to join the presidential race, he devises a plan to make sure his best friend Libby wins. That all changes when he discovers that Libby has oh-so-sneakily gone behind his back by hiring Molly Decker to be her campaign manager. Now, he's in it to win it. And things are going to get ugly. Join Trevor, Libby, Cindy, and the whole Westside contingency (along with the documentary film crew) as they explore the ugly underbelly of middle school politics.

An upbeat, empowering, important picture book from the team that created the award-winning Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut. A perfect gift for any special occasion! I am a nonstop ball of energy. Powerful and full of light. I am a go-getter. A difference maker. A leader. The confident Black narrator of this book is proud of everything that makes him who he is. He's got big plans, and no doubt he'll see them through--as he's creative, adventurous, smart, funny, and a good friend. Sometimes he falls, but he always gets back up. And other times he's afraid, because he's so often misunderstood and called what he is not. So slow down and really look and listen, when somebody tells you--and shows you--who they are. There are superheroes in our midst!

Trevor Muir uses the power of storytelling and brain science to give educators practical and proven practices to achieve real student engagement, and in return, learning that is permanent and memorable. Any teacher, in any subject area, and in any grade level can use the story-centered framework to transform their classrooms into settings where students are engaged, challenged, and transformed.

In his latest graphic novel, Dragon Hoops, New York Times bestselling author Gene Luen Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches. Gene understands stories—comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn’t get sports. As a kid, his friends called him “Stick” and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about. The men’s varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that’s been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he’s seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn’t know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons’s lives, but his own life as well.

On 8 November 2004, the largest battle of the War on Terror began, with the US Army's assault on Fallujah and its network of tens of thousands of insurgents hiding in fortified bunkers, on rooftops, and inside booby-trapped houses. For Sgt. David Bellavia of 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, it quickly turned into a battle on foot, from street to street and house to house. On the second day, he and his men laid siege to a mosque, only to be driven to a rooftop and surrounded, before heavy artillery could smash through to rescue them. By the third day, Bellavia charges an insurgent-filled house and finds himself trapped with six enemy fighters. One by one, he shoots, wrestles, stabs, and kills five of them, until his men arrive to take care of the final target. It is one of the most hair-raising battle stories of any age -- yet it does not spell the end of Bellavia's service. It would take serveral more weeks before the Battle of Fallujah finally came to a close, with Bellavia, miraculously, alive. In the words of the author: "HOUSE TO HOUSE holds nothing back. It is a raw, gritty look at killing and combat and how men react to it. It is gut-wrenching, shocking and brutal. It is honest. It is not a glorification of war. Yet it will not shy from acknowledging this: sometimes it takes something as terrible as war for the full beauty of the human spirit to emerge."