Kids

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER

“The next great middle grade author.” —Colby Sharp, literacy advocate

A “Best Book of the Year” from: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Amazon.com, and the American Booksellers Association

A New York Times "Books for Kids Starting Middle School" Selection

This USA Today bestseller is a funny and fresh middle-grade debut novel about jawbreaking dental drama.

Max Plink’s life just got a lot more complicated. Trouble at home? Check—with money tight, her parents haven’t been getting along lately. School bullies? Double check—especially if you count her sister, who is the worst bully of them all. Dental drama? Oh, you have no idea. With a mismatched puzzle of a jaw, Max has a Class II malocclusion, otherwise known as a severe overbite. She already has braces, which means she lives on Advil and soft foods after each orthodontist appointment. But now Max has to wear totally awkward orthodontic headgear nicknamed “the jawbreaker.” Could things get any worse?

Yes, they could. The journalism competition Max wants to enter has a video component. But being on camera means showing her face not just to her junior high classmates, but possibly the whole city. Going viral is the last thing Max needs, but winning this competition is what she wants most. Turns out, following her dreams is complicated, too.

Inspired by Christina Wyman’s own experience with a Class II malocclusion, Jawbreaker is a humorous and refreshingly honest story perfect for readers ages 8-12 who love Raina Telgemeier, Terri Libenson, Kelly Yang, Gordon Korman, and other endlessly funny and deeply heartfelt books that tackle big topics and universal coming-of-age experiences alike.

If you enjoyed Jawbreaker, then you'll also love Christina Wyman's USA Today bestseller, Slouch, and her forthcoming book Breakout. Order your own copy today!

More awards and praise for Jawbreaker:
An Indies Introduce and Kids’ Indie Next List Pick
Nerdy Book Awards Middle Grade Fiction Winner
Judy Lopez Memorial Award Winner
Mark Twain Readers Award Nominee
William Allen White Children's Book Award Nominee
South Carolina Children's Book Award Nominee
Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee
New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Award Nominee
Kids All Iowa Reads Selection

“A courageous story about developing 'brace' under pressure.” —The New York Times

★ “Smile meets Wonder.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ “A hugely relatable must-read.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Jawbreaker is the novel you wish you had read as a kid and are grateful that kids get to read today.” —Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production, A School Library Journal Blog

"Susan Tan's writing is funny, fun, and hits straight to the heart."—Christina Soontorvat, two-time Newbery Honor recipient

From APALA Honor award-winning author Susan Tan, a middle-grade novel about a girl who must overcome her worries to find the truth behind her town's urban legend.

Moving to a new town is never easy, but it’s even harder when you’re dealing with a stepdad who just left and a mom who can’t get out of bed long enough to find a new job. But Mo doesn’t have time to dwell on these things.

Because it’s her job to keep her family together. To keep them safe.

So when an elephant starts to haunt her dreams—and a mysterious spirit attacks her home—Mo knows it’s up to her to intervene before things get too dangerous.

With her new friend, Nathaniel, she embarks on an investigation, searching for the truth about the town, its people, and their history. But things are much more complicated and tangled than she thought.

To find out what’s really going on, Mo might have to live a little dangerously after all.

**Four starred reviews!**

A farm-working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers’ rights in this tender-hearted novel in verse, perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia and Pam Muñoz Ryan.

Lula Viramontes aches to one day become someone whom no one can ignore: a daring ringleader in a Mexican traveling circus. But between working the grape harvest in Delano, California, with her older siblings under dangerous conditions; taking care of her younger siblings and Mamá, who has mysteriously fallen ill; and doing everything she can to avoid Papá’s volatile temper, it’s hard to hold on to those dreams.

Then she meets Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong, and other labor rights activists and realizes she may need to raise her voice sooner rather than later: Farmworkers are striking for better treatment and wages, and whether Lula’s family joins them or not will determine their future.

Middle-kid Emma is stuck between her two brothers, again.

She has to ride in the middle seat as her family heads out on a weeklong beach vacation with friends, where Emma knows that being just medium will only get worse! Then she has an idea. What if she could get out of being in the middle by taking on a new role? What if she acted BIG? Will Emma's plan work, or will she have another huge dilEmma?

Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry lives in a cabin with her family deep in the wild woods. Living off the grid is usually exciting, like the time she chased off three growling raccoons with a tree branch and some acorns, or when she thought she glimpsed

Perfect for fans of Dork Diaries and Emmie & Friends, this first book in a diary-style illustrated middle grade series follows an anxious, science-minded sixth grader determined to become fun and win back her friend.

Sixth grade has been pretty disaster-free for aspiring astronaut Maple McNutt—which is impressive, given the number of worries and possible catastrophes that run through her head every day. (So far, Earth hasn’t been devoured by a black hole and a cockroach hasn’t crawled out of her toothpaste mid-squeeze. Phew!) But then her best friend of seven-point-two years, Sunny Gwon, accuses her of being unfun and starts hanging around with a new group of friends.

In order to win Sunny back, Maple decides to undergo a serious scientific transformation to become fun by 1. Doing extensive research, 2. Applying research to self, and and 3. Repeating until fun. It’s risky and groundbreaking research, but Maple has no choice if she wants to save her friendship.

Launching a new graphic novel series for young middle-grade readers! Shelley Frankenstein loves to create scary monsters, but for some reason they always turn out cute…until this time. Shelley Frankenstein is a little girl with a rather infamous family heritage! She loves to be scared and assumes all other kids feel the same. To prove her theory, Shelley and her assistant brother, Iggy, set about creating new toys to horrify their playground peers. But all of their experiments backfire in a completely unexpected way. What a disappointment! Then one day, they stumble upon a pretty spooky place—the Frankenstein family graveyard—which gives Shelley an idea for the ULTIMATE monster... CowPiggy! Will this new creation send everyone running in terror, like a proper monster should? Or will love and silliness triumph? Find out in this delightfully upside-down graphic novel from best-selling artist Colleen Madden.

At the Animal Rescue Friends shelter, everyone is looking for a way to belong--kids and animals alike. From Epic! Originals, Animal Rescue Friends is a heartwarming, three-book graphic novel series filled with humor and furry friendships.

Welcome to Animal Rescue Friends, where any stray can find a friendly face--furry or otherwise. This first collection of middle-grade comics includes five tales of found family: A lonely girl living in the suburbs finds happiness with a stray pit bull; a protective mama ferret and her six kits learn to trust a shelter volunteer; a shy boy stands up for himself with the help of a strong-willed bunny; a cantankerous cat helps to mend a troubled relationship; and the shelter's unofficial mascot eventually finds a home. Perfect for animal-loving kids, this adorable comics series will inspire and uplift.

From the Eisner-nominated duo behind the instant bestseller Allergic comes a fun new graphic novel about finding your own space... especially when you're in a family of nine!\

Eleven-year-old Avery Lee loves living in Hickory Valley, Maryland. She loves her neighborhood, school, and the end-of-summer fair she always goes to with her two best friends. But she's tired of feeling squished by her six siblings! They're noisy and chaotic and the younger kids love her a little too much. All Avery wants is her own room -- her own space to be alone and make art. So she's furious when Theo, her grumpy older brother, gets his own room instead, and her wild baby brother, Max, moves into the room she already shares with her clinging sister Pearl! Avery hatches a plan to finally get her own room, all while trying to get Max to sleep at night, navigating changes in her friendships, and working on an art entry for the fair. And when Avery finds out that her family might move across the country, things get even more complicated.

Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter have once again teamed up to tell a funny, heartfelt, and charming story of family, friendship, and growing up.

Ready your armor, sword, and sleeping bag—the Table Titans are headed to summer camp! Come along for the adventure in this graphic novel series about a middle school Dungeon & Dragons club from Eisner and Harvey award-winning cartoonist Scott Kurtz.

Table Titans Club members Val, Kate, Alan, Andrew, and Darius are psyched to spend the summer at Camp Owl Care. At this live-action roleplay paradise, the gang will work together to overcome challenges, unravel riddles, and safely swash-buckle their foes. Nothing the Table Titans can’t handle together!

. . . Or not? The club arrives and learns that they’ve been randomly sorted into houses for the camp LARP quest. They must compete against their fellow Titans for reward and renown! To make this nightmare worse, Alan fully embraces the rivalry and becomes determined to crush his friends’ teams—even if that means cheating. 

As the camp-wide feud heats up, it seems like the Titans will have to make a choice: sacrifice their houses’ standings, or say goodbye to their tight-knit friendship. The final quest approaches . . . Will Val lead her team to victory? And more importantly, will the Table Titans Club survive the summer? 

Set in the same universe as the Eisner Award-winning webcomic PvP, Scott Kurtz’s artwork blends zany, fantastical visuals with slice-of-life humor. For fans of fantasy and coming of age stories alike, Table Titans Club perfectly captures the heart of tween friendships.

It's The Unteachables meets I, Robot in another funny middle school tale from Gordon Korman!

It’s the start of a new school year and Oliver is looking forward to a seventh-grade year full of spitballs, jokes and pranks with his friend Nathan. And their new homeroom teacher, Mr. Aidact, looks like a prime target. He’s an odd duck — with a weird, stilted vocabulary, an unusual way of looking at things, and a strangely old student teacher constantly in tow. He also has a seemingly superhuman ability to detect and defuse almost every one of Oliver’s schemes.

But that’s not all of it. Mr. Aidact seems to be teaching pretty much every subject. He’s willing to take over jobs no other teacher will, like supervising detention and coaching the field hockey team. Oliver and Nathan are determined to find out what is up with this guy.

What they uncover is out of this world!

Mr. Aidact is, in fact, superhuman — he’s an android, a secret project of the Department of Education. And when the secret leaks out, the school and the PTA are in an uproar, and calls for his “deactivation” are loud and clear.

Can Oliver and his friends turn this plan around and save the teacher they’ve grown to love and appreciate?

After being abandoned by her mother in a most unusual place, a defiant heroine sticks to her plan for staying hidden—even though getting caught could mean saving her life.

Twelve-year-old Mouse calls an amusement park home.

Nobody notices her, and that's the way she likes it. Mouse sweeps the streets and wears a uniform she “borrowed” and sleeps on the top floor of the Haunted House of Horrors. She knows which security guards to avoid, eats the bagel left out each morning for the Ghost of Summer (a popular theme park legend), and even has the taco guy convinced that her lunch is paid for. She has her special hiding methods down to a science. 

But one morning, a girl named Cat comes looking for Lauren Suszek. Cat notices her, and Mouse doesn’t like it. Mouse cannot let this nosy pest find out who she really is! If Mouse gets discovered living in the park, Mama might come back for her, and Mouse doesn’t want that. Or—even worse?—Mama might not come back at all.

Mouse knows she can lose this girl without blowing her cover. She just has to follow her rules. A carefully constructed life in the park is all she needs. Right? 

Anchored by memorable characters and an extraordinary setting, Maura Jortner’s brilliant debut novel is bursting with grit, humor, and heart.

A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year!
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

This hilarious follow-up to the New York Times bestselling poetry book I'm Just No Good at Rhyming is full of surprising twists of wit and wordplay that will have readers rolling on the floor laughing!

“Highly recommended, it gets 5 stars and 8 moons and a chef's kiss and a tip of the hat and a jump in the lake from me.”—Bob Odenkirk, award-winning actor, writer, and comedian

I'm Just No Good at Rhyming is this century's most acclaimed comedic poetry collection so far, described as "a worthy heir to Silverstein, Seuss, and even Ogden Nash" (PublishersWeekly), "wildly imaginative...inspired and inspiring" (Kirkus), and as "everything a book for kids should be" (B.J. Novak). Now, Chris Harris delivers all that and more with dazzling new heights of creativity, kooky conundrums, witty wordsmithing, and of course, wacky laugh-out-loud fun!

There's a whole new cast of characters to meet, from the Nail-Clipping Fairy (who delivers teeth at night), to Orloc the Destroyer (who can be defeated only by his mommy), to the Elderly Caveman (who complains about the younger generation obsessed with playing with fire). There are more mind-bending verbal and visual riddles, plus there's plenty of hilarious hijinks hiding around every corner, whether it's a buffalo that escapes one poem and roams through others or a meteor threatening to land on the book and obliterate everything. There's even a mini book-within-a-book! In between it all, cartoonist Andrea Tsurumi’s diverse range of exuberant people, creatures, and anthropomorphic objects ripple through the pages with playful energy.

If your head has a bellyache as you read this book, it will only be because you're laughing WAY. TOO. HARD!

This middle-school class clown's hilarious online videos might get thousands of views . . . but is fame worth the price of friendship? A heartfelt story with multiple perspectives about the challenges of social media.

Meet Jack Reynolds. Making people laugh is his life's work. Jack's wacky MyTube channel is really starting to take off. The only problem is, for the truly epic posts, he needs a collaborator. And, well, he doesn't exactly have any friends. So Jack has to swallow his pride and join the new afterschool club, Speed Friendshipping. But who would make the best partner in comedy?

• Brielle, Miss Perfect candidate for student body president?
• Mario, whose mom won't even let him have a smart phone?
• Or Tasha, the quiet, mysterious girl with a shaved head and a crocheted hat for every day of the week?

One of these kids could help catapult Jack to internet fame . . . or even become a true friend. But what will it cost him to go viral? 

This middle school novel explores themes of friendship, belonging, and the ways social media can put pressure on today's kids.

The story of sweet success behind the Hershey's Kiss! The invention of America's quintessential milk chocolate bar is brought to vivid, delicious life in this STEAM picture book biography perfect for fans of Mr. Ferris and His Wheel and Snowflake Bentley.

Hershey's milk chocolate is the quintessential American chocolate bar. But in Milton Hershey's time, chocolate was mostly a special treat for the very wealthy. Milton grew up poor and was no stranger to going hungry. When he got a job washing dishes in an ice cream parlor, he realized how happy sweets made people--and how much he liked making people happy.

Over the course of his career, Hershey failed to make many businesses profitable, yet ultimately cracked the formula on milk chocolate. Here was a chocolate that was delicious, didn't spoil, and could be sold at an affordable price in communities across America and the world. And here was a business that could provide good lives in a welcoming town and an education for those who couldn't afford it.

Perfect for the chocolate lover, inventor, and science-experiment-obsessed childhood reader, this biography shows that perseverance and persistence can lead to sweet success.

In author Rachel Williams and illustrator Ksenia Bakhareva’s Picture Puzzler: A Natural History Hide-and-Seek, step into the world’s wildest places to solve 72 picture riddles and search for camouflaged animals.

Explore six real world habitats: the Sahara, the Rocky Mountains, European beech forests, the Amazon Basin, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Arctic archipelago Svalbard.

A dozen camouflaged animals are hidden within a large illustration of each habitat. How many will you spot? A rhyming riddle for each animal offers clues.

If you’re still stumped, a second set of pages offers additional hints for the hardest-to-spot creatures as well as more information about the animals and the habitat they call home.

A rivalry between sisters culminates in a fencing duel in this funny and emotional debut graphic novel sure to appeal to readers of Raina Telgemeier and Shannon Hale.

Sixth grader Lucy loves fantasy novels and is brand-new to middle school. GiGi is the undisputed queen bee of eighth grade (as well as everything else she does). They’ve only got one thing in common: fencing. Oh, and they’re sisters. They never got along super well, but ever since their dad died, it seems like they’re always at each other’s throats.

When GiGi humiliates Lucy in the cafeteria on the first day of school, Lucy snaps and challenges GiGi to a duel with high sisterly stakes. If GiGi wins, Lucy promises to stay out of GiGi’s way; if Lucy wins, GiGi will stop teasing Lucy for good. But after their scene in the cafeteria, both girls are on thin ice with the principal and their mom. Lucy stopped practicing fencing after their fencer dad died and will have to get back to fighting form in secret or she’ll be in big trouble. And GiGi must behave perfectly or risk getting kicked off the fencing team. 

As the clock ticks down to the girls’ fencing bout, the anticipation grows. Their school is divided into GiGi and Lucy factions, complete with t-shirts declaring kids’ allegiances. Both sisters are determined to triumph. But will winning the duel mean fracturing their family even further?

Discover the inspiring story of Augustus Jackson, an African American entrepreneur who is known as "the father of ice cream," in this beautifully illustrated picture-book biography.

Augustus Jackson was born in 1808 in Philadelphia. While most African Americans were enslaved at that time, in Pennsylvania, slavery was against the law. But while Augustus and his family were free, they were poor, and they depended on their garden and their chickens for food. Augustus enjoyed helping his mom prepare meals for their family. He dreamed of becoming a professional cook, and when his mom suggested he may be able to make meals for the president one day, Augustus didn’t waste any time in making that dream a reality. In 1820, when he was only twelve years old, he set off for Washington, DC. He applied to work in the White House, where the head cook offered him a job as a kitchen helper. After five years of working hard, Augustus, or Gus, was promoted to cook. He went on to serve presidents James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson.

During his time at the White House, Augustus became an expert at making a popular egg-based dessert. He soon made an eggless version—known to us today as ice cream—and left the White House determined to make and sell the frozen treat to everyone, not just the wealthy. Gus headed back home to Philadelphia, and in 1830, he opened his very own ice cream parlor. He devised a way to keep the ice cream frozen so that it could be shipped and sold to other businesses. Gus also began adding rock salt to the ice that he used to make his ice cream, which made the mixture freeze more quickly. This allowed him to speed up his production process. He created more ice cream with new flavors, and soon he was shipping product via train to places like New York City, which was 100 miles away. Gus’s dream had come true, and better yet, he had brought smiles to many faces.

Shining a light on a little-known visionary, this inspiring picture-book biography includes an afterword, a list of sources, and an easy-to-follow recipe so readers can make their own delicious ice cream!

The New York Times bestseller, Indie bestseller, and Amazon Best Children's Book from beloved authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko and with illustrations by Wallace West, Dogtown is at once an uplifting story and a page-turning adventure, sure to find a forever home in readers’ hearts.

Dogtown is a shelter for stray dogs, misbehaving dogs, and discarded robot dogs, whose owners have outgrown them.

Chance, a real dog, has been in Dogtown since her owners unwittingly left her with irresponsible dog-sitters who skipped town.

Metal Head is a robot dog who dreams of being back in a real home.

And Mouse is a mouse who has the run of Dogtown, pilfering kibble, and performing clever feats to protect the dogs he loves.

When Chance and Metal Head embark on an adventure to find their forever homes, there is danger, cheese sandwiches, a charging station, and some unexpected kindnesses along the way.

From the beloved author of Posted comes the story of Zeke Stahls—a thoroughly average twelve-year-old who somehow finds himself in a competition to be named the World's Greatest Kid.

Zeke Stahls is not the best kid in the world. Some days he struggles just to be good. He'd rather be pulling pranks than doing extra credit, and he's too busy performing experiments on his little brother, Nate, or tormenting his older sister, Jackie, to volunteer for charity.

Which is why Zeke and his entire family are shocked when they receive word that he has been selected as a contestant in an online competition to find the World's Greatest Kid.

Zeke has no idea how he was chosen for this, and he knows that measuring up to the other nominees--a saintly lineup of selfless, charming and talented do-gooders with photogenic smiles and hearts of gold--is hopeless. Still, with a $10,000 cash prize on the line, and Zeke's mom struggling to hold the family together on her single-parent salary, he decides to give it his best shot.

As Zeke concocts various plots to show the world just how “great” he is, however, he finds himself wondering what that word even means, and who gets to decide. And what kind of kid he wants--and needs--to be.

On a hot day, people come from all over the city to spend the day at the pool in this joyful picture book that’s a love song to summer, the city, community, and staying cool!

Today is a pool day in the city! The sun is shining, so what are you waiting for? Friends and family. Kids and grandparents. Big bodies and small bodies. Everybody is welcome at our pool! Get ready for swimming and splashing, zigzagging and dunking, and racing and laughing.