Frank Carlson Library

Lizzie, who has always been considered a nerd by the other kids, begins the seventh grade determined to change her image so that she can blend in better with the popular crowd.

Willa, who wants to feel extraordinary, thinks that she's in love with the father of the boy next door until she realized that her "ordinary" true love is for the boy himself.

Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.

Fourth-grader Bobby is hurt when he hears his father, a former pro-football player, say that the two of them are nothing alike, but finally summons the courage to talk about it after his public asthma attack proves how right his father is.

Fifth-grader Minn, the tallest girl in school, begins a rocky friendship with Jake, a new student who is not only very short, but is also afraid of the worms and lizards that Minn likes to collect.

As he is preparing to attend middle school, Hank, who has learning differences and academic difficulties, gets an unexpected opportunity to audition for a performing arts school where his creativity and humor will be appreciated and nurtured.

While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.

Eleven-year-old Tally is starting sixth grade at Kingswood Academy and she really wants to fit in, which means somehow hiding her autism, hypersensitivity to touch, and true self, and trying to act "normal" like her former best friend, Layla, who is distancing herself from Tally and her fourteen-year-old sister, Nell, who is always angry with Tally for being different; but as she records her thoughts and anxieties in her coping diary, Tally begins...

"Eighth grader Drew Ellis recognizes that he isn't afforded the same opportunities, no matter how hard he works, that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted, and to make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids and is finding it hard not to withdraw, even as their mutual friend Jordan tries to keep their group of friends together."--Provided by publisher....

April is looking for an escape from the sixth-grade lunch hour, which has become a social-scene nightmare, so she signs up to be a "buddy bench monitor" for the fourth graders' recess. Joey Byrd is a boy on the fringes, who wanders the playground alone, dragging his foot through the dirt. But over time, April realizes that Joey isn't just making random circles. When you look at his designs from above, a story emerges... Joey's "bird's eye" drawings...