Living in a rural community in Wisconsin during the 1950s, eleven-year-old Amanda gradually and painfully learns a lot about herself, her parents, and her older sister.

Great middle greats fiction.

An activity book for mothers and daughters filled with quizzes, car games, recipes, and much more.

Ann Cameron's beloved and bestselling chapter book series about Julian, his brother Huey, and his friend Gloria all begins right here! Julian has a big imagination. And he is great at telling stories. He can make people—especially his younger brother, Huey—believe just about anything. Like the story about the cats that come in the mail. Or the fig leaves that make you grow tall if you eat them off the tree. But some stories can lead to a heap of trouble, and that's exactly where Julian and Huey end up! This book has been selected as a Common Core State Standards Text Exemplar (Grades 2–3, Stories) in Appendix B. "You have to go a long way these days to find a book that leaves you feeling as happy as this one." —The New York Times "There's a glow here that's hard to resist." —Booklist

Mr Piggy has everything he needs in his brick house in far away Pig Land, so why does he want to get rid of his lovely, curly tail? He pulls it, he tugs it, and in the end... well you'll have to read it and see! With the help of his friends, and a bit of piggy soul-searching, Mr Piggy comes out the other side of his adventure feeling much better, and much piggier. In the charming tale of a determined pig learning to accept his differences, Judith Kula shares a message of self-acceptance and love, showing kids that they're wonderful just as they are. A great way to celebrate diversity and difference, Mr Piggy is a wonderful story for children of all ages that will spread warm fuzzies further than Pig Land.

This comprehensive text presents a core of research-based approaches to engaging, effective literacy instruction in the middle grades. Methods and materials are described to foster reading skills, content mastery, and writing in different formats and for different purposes. The authors emphasize the need to tailor instruction to the needs, strengths, skill levels, and interests of diverse students. They offer recommendations for reading lists that incorporate critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction, popular series books, and other student-friendly materials. Special features include case studies, examples of teaching and assessment activities, and commentary from middle-school teachers and students. Appendices contain reproducible forms and lists of recommended reading materials and resources.

A heartwarming story from the author of the I SURVIVED series. Emma-Jean Lazarus is the smartest and strangest girl at William Gladstone Middle School. Her classmates don't understand her, but that's okay because Emma-Jean doesn't quite get them either. But one afternoon, all that changes when she sees Colleen Pomerantz crying in the girl's room. It is through Colleen that Emma-Jean gets a glimpse into what it is really like to be a seventh grader. And what she finds will send her tumbling out of a tree and questioning why she ever got involved in the first place.