School Days, School Days

Bibliography created by the Schaumburg Township District Library

FICTION BASKIN, N.	*Basketball (or Something Like It)* by Nora Raleigh Baskin. Hank, Nathan, Jeremy, and Anabel deal with the realities of middle school basketball, including family pressures, coaches with different personalities, being a team player, and being a friend.
FICTION BOWE, J.	*My Last Best Friend* by Julie Bowe. After her best friend moves away, fourth-grader Ida May is determined not to make another best friend, despite the efforts of a new girl in her class.
MYSTERY BROACH, E.	*Shakespeare’s Secret* by Elise Broach. Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes interested in exploring the connection of a valuable diamond, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the most popular boy in school.
FICTION CLEMENTS, A.	*Lunch Money* by Andrew Clements. Twelve-year-old Greg, who has always been good at moneymaking projects, is surprised to find himself teaming up with his lifelong rival, Maura, to create a series of comic books to sell at school.
FICTION DISALVO, D.	*The Sloppy Copy Slipup* by DyAnne DiSalvo. Fourth-grader Brian Higman worries about how his teacher Miss Fromme, nicknamed the General, will react when he fails to hand in a writing assignment, but he ends up being able to tell his story, after all.
FICTION DOWELL, F.	*Erupts!: the First Experiment* by Frances O’Roark Dowell. Fourth-grade science whiz Phineas MacGuire is forced to team up with the new boy in class on a science fair project, but the boy’s quirky personality causes Phineas to wonder if they have any chance of winning.
FICTION ENGLISH, K.	*Speak to Me: (and I Will Listen Between the Lines)* by Karen English. Describes events of one day at a San Francisco Bay Area school as perceived by different second-graders, from the observations of first to arrive on the playground to the walk home.
FICTION JR-HI GARFINKLE, D.	*Storky: How I Lost My Nickname and Won the Girl* by Debra Garfinkle. Fourteen-year-old high school student Michael “Storky” Pomerantz’s journal describes his freshman year, from dealing with his mother’s dating his dentist to attempting to win the heart of the girl he loves.
FICTION GILSON, J.	*Gotcha!* by Jamie Gilson. As the children in Mrs. Zookey’s second grade class learn about arachnids, Richard feels more like prey while Patrick, the class bully, seems to be out to get him.
FICTION GOLDSCHMIDT, J.	*The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez* by Judy Goldschmidt. In a weblog she sends to her best friends back in Berkeley, seventh-grader Raisin Rodriguez chronicles her successes and her more frequent humiliating failures as she attempts to make friends at her new Philadelphia school.
FICTION GRAFF, L.	*The Thing About Georgie* by Lisa Graff. Georgie’s dwarfism causes problems, but he could always rely on his parents, his best friend, and classmate Jeanie the Meanie’s teasing, until a surprising announcement, a new boy in school, and a class project shake things up.
FICTION GREENE, S.	*Queen Sophie Hartley* by Stephanie Greene. A suggestion from her mother leads Sophie to befriend the new girl at school and an elderly, grouchy woman, and helps her overcome the feeling that she is not good at anything.
FICTION GREENWALD, S.	*Rosy Cole’s Memoir Explosion: a Heartbreaking Story about Losing Friends, Annoying Family, and Ruining Romance* by Sheila Greenwald. When Rosy writes a memoir about herself and her friends for a school assignment, she is surprised when they are not thrilled with the result.
FICTION HADDIX, M.	*Dexter the Tough* by Margaret Peterson Haddix. A sympathetic teacher and her writing assignment help fourth-grader Dexter deal with being the new kid in school after he punches a kid on the first day.
FICTION JR-HI HOLMES, E.	*Pretty Is* by Elizabeth Holmes. The summer before starting middle school, eleven-year-old Erin feels out of place, is being treated badly by her former best friend and is embarrassed by her dorky older sister, but when she tries to get even she steps over the line.
FICTION JACOBSON, J.	*Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Dolores Starbuckle* by Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Andy Shane hates school, mainly because of a tattletale know-it-all named Dolores Starbuckle, but Granny Webb, who has taken care of him all his life, joins him in class one day and helps him solve the problem.
FICTION JORDAN, R.	*The Goatnappers* by Rosa Jordan. Justin’s place as the first high school freshman in twenty years to make the varsity baseball team is at risk when his math grade plummets while he is trying to cope with the abuse of a young billy goat he sold and a visit from his estranged father to Lost Goat Lane.
FICTION KINNEY, J.	*Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley’s Journal* by Jeff Kinney. Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.
FICTION LEVINE, E.	*Catch a Tiger* by the Toe by Ellen Levine. In the Bronx, New York, during the McCarthy era, twelve-year-old Jamie keeps a terrible secret about her family, but when the truth is exposed, her parents lose their jobs and she is fired from the school newspaper.
FICTION LOMBARD, J.	*Drita, My Homegirl* by Jenny Lombard. When ten-year-old Drita and her family, refugees from Kosovo, move to New York, Drita is teased about not speaking English well, but after a popular student named Maxine is forced to learn about Kosovo as a punishment for teasing Drita, the two girls soon bond.
FICTION MATLIN, M.	*Nobody’s Perfect* by Marlee Matlin. Megan, a popular and outgoing fourth-grader, is sure that the “perfect” new girl dislikes her because she is deaf, but persistence and a joint science fair project help Megan see that the two girls have something in common after all.
FICTION MCDONALD, M.	*Stink: the Incredible Shrinking Kid* by Megan McDonald. The shortest kid in the second grade, James Moody, also known as Stink, learns all about the shortest president of the United States, James Madison, when they celebrate Presidents’ Day at school.
FICTION MEACHAM, M.	*Quiet! You’re Invisible* by Margaret Meacham. With his mother expecting a baby and a bully living next door, fifth-grader Hoby Hobson has enough to worry about even before Zirc, a time-traveling boy who can sometimes be invisible, shows up in his backyard.
FICTION MILLS, C.	*Being Teddy Roosevelt* by Claudia Mills. When he is assigned Teddy Roosevelt as his biography project in school, fourth-grader Riley finds himself inspired by Roosevelt’s tenacity and perseverance and resolves to find a way to get what he most wants—a saxophone and music lessons.
FICTION MOSS, M.	*Amelia’s Sixth-Grade Notebook* by Marissa Moss. Problems arise for Amelia when she starts sixth grade at the same middle school where her older sister Cleo is an eighth-grader, and she gets the school’s meanest teacher for three of her classes.
FICTION NAGDA, A.	*Tarantula Power!* by Ann Whitehead Nagda. Forced to work with the class bully on a project to design a new breakfast cereal, Richard also tries to stop him from picking on second-graders by using tarantula power.
FICTION JR-HI NELSON, B.	*Gender Blender* by Blake Nelson. When the students in health class at George Wilson Middle School are assigned girl/boy partners to discuss gender issues, no one could imagine that two students would actually switch bodies.
FICTION OCONNELL, R.	*Penina Levine Is a Hard-Boiled Egg* by Rebecca O’Connell. With only her best friend to lean on, forthright Penina celebrates Passover while she contends with a bratty younger sister and a seemingly unsympathetic sixth-grade teacher.
FICTION PAPADEMETRIOU, L	*Sixth-Grade Glommers, Norks, and Me* by Lisa Papademetriou. As Allie Kimball starts sixth grade, she discovers that middle school is a very different world, populated with glommers—those girls who cling to each other in groups; norks—a combination of a nerd and a dork; and worst of all, squashes—crushes that make you feel like your heart has been stepped on.
FICTION PENNYPACKER, S.	*The Talented Clementine* by Sara Pennypacker. Eight-year-old Clementine, convinced that she has no talents, tries to find a way to avoid participating in the class talent show.
FICTION RICHARDSON, C.	*The Real Slam Dunk* by Charisse K. Richardson. Ten-year-old Marcus plans to become a professional basketball player, but when he, his twin sister, and their classmates meet a real star on a school field trip, they learn the importance of dreaming more than one career dream.
FICTION SHALANT, P.	*The Great Cape Rescue* by Phyllis Shalant. Upon entering fourth grade, Fin and his friends think they must stop playing superheroes, until they discover that their game might become real through a magical cape, and the Society of Secret Superheroes is born.
FICTION VANDRAANEN, W.	*Secret Identity* by Wendelin Van Draanen. Fifth-grader Nolan Byrd, tired of being called names by the class bully, has a secret identity—Shredderman!
FICTION JR-HI VEGA, D.	*Click Here: (to Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade)* by Denise Vega. Seventh-grader Erin Swift writes about her friends and classmates in her private log, but when it accidentally gets posted on the school Intranet site, she learns some important lessons about friendship.
FICTION WALKER, K.	*I Hate Books!* by Kate Walker. Although he is a great storyteller and good at art, Hamish cannot read, even with remedial classes, but his brother Nathan finally comes up with a way to teach him.
FICTION WINERIP, M.	*Adam Canfield of the Slash* by Michael Winerip. While serving as co-editors of their school newspaper, middle-schoolers Adam and Jennifer uncover fraud and corruption in their school and in the city’s government.
FICTION WINKLER, H.	*My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard* by Henry Winkler. With the help of his grandfather, underachieving fifth-grader Hank Zipzer finally discovers that he is good at ping-pong, but he is afraid to tell his classmates for fear of being ridiculed.
FICTION WOJCIECHOWSKI, S.	*Beany and the Meany* by Susan Wojciechowski. When Meany’s best friend Carol Ann pairs with the new girl at school to create a science project, Meany must work with Kevin the bully.