What I did last summer. Nothing. The end." Or is it? Hobie just knows this will ge his most boring summer ever. His best friend's at camp, and pesky Molly Bosco keeps popping up. It's not so bad when Hobie and Molly win a pie-eating contest together. But when a picture of Molly kissing Hobie winds up on the front page of the paper, summer's turning weird, very weird.

Hobie goes on the overnight soccer tournament under his dad's strict orders to stay out of trouble. So what's Hobie doing in a penguin costume riding on top of a car full of circus clowns?

Mr. Star broke the news gently. "Well, 4B," he said, "it appears we're going to do it." It was the talk of last year's fourth, especially the part about the catfish between the principal's sheets. It is the good-behavior reward for this year's fourth grade. It is Outdoor Education: three days at Camp Trotter in Wisconsin. From where Hobie Hanson sits -- at Central School in Stockton, Illinois -- it is bad news. Three days also means two nights, two nights far from home. The thought brings wooly-worms to his stomach and floods his head with what-ifs. As things turn out, however, Outdoor Education lives up to its name, and in ways that neither Hobie nor his friends expect. The class, and sub, that kept readers breathless in Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub are back for another rousing adventure, filled with the sights, sounds, tastes, and, yes, smells familiar to veteran campers everywhere.

A new program for gifted and talented students has the fifth grade in turmoil. Ultimately, all those involved learn an important lesson about the meaning of "gifted", and that there are many ways for a person to be special.

Get young readers hooked on some of the best titles in juvenile literature, ranging from humor to mystery to fantasy, with unusual and effective methods like games. Getting students to want to read is one of the greatest challenges facing middle school teachers and librarians. Determining which are the "right books" that can spark a child's mental awakening is also difficult. This book from prolific author Nancy Polette furnishes interesting and fun games to pique students' interest in junior novels that are worth reading—carefully selected titles that will contribute to their educational and emotional growth. Gateway to Reading: 250+ Author Games and Booktalks to Motivate Middle Readers is a powerful tool for luring middle-school students away from the distractions of 21st-century media and introducing them to junior or 'tween novels that they won't be able to put down. By presenting children with a challenge to engage their minds—racing to decode book titles, or using their creativity to come up with titles of their own, for example—students are naturally drawn towards reading these books from well-known children's authors.

The boys and girls in the fourth grade devise a contest to sink their substitute teacher by making her cry.

When his town is devastated by a flood, Hobie's fifth grade class is forced to meet every day in the shopping mall.