Fourteen-year-old Simone is having trouble making friends at her new school when her leadership studies class is paired with kindergarten students to mentor throughout the school year.

To her surprise, Simone enjoys the Kinderbuddy Project, and she develops a special friendship with her Kinderbuddy, Lily. But as the bond between Simone and her Kinderbuddy grows, she realizes that a crisis is looming in Lily's family. Simone

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"The way of the rebel has its price. Oh, man. Someone must have seen Indi and me doing our thing. They recognized me and reported it to the cops. This envelope is from the cops. They write letters? Wouldn't they just come and hassle me? I keep cool, reach inside, draw out a sheet of paper. It doesn't have any official emblems. It just looks like a letter, starting with "Dear Samuel." Weird. No one writes me letters. I shoot another glance at Mom but...

"Owen has a crush on Kamryn. Kamryn has a crush on Owen's brother Kyle. Owen knows extreme action is necessary to make sure Kamryn does not end up dating his brother, a jerk who manipulates every situation to get what he wants. So what does Owen do? He manipulates the situation. With the help of his friend Hannah, Owen sets up a blog called The Oracle that gives out relationship advice to local teens. Everything seems to be going great. Hannah and...

Daniel Abel is surprised when, instead of being punished for "pantsing" another eighth-grader, he is invited to become an ambassador of Mountview High at the school's upcoming open house. What he doesn't realize is that he is part of a social experiment on bullying being conducted by the local university.

"In this high-interest novel for middle readers, Ethan, aka "The Potato," goes on a school trip to the Amazon, where he must confront his worst fears."--

"In this high-interest novel for middle readers, Iggy embarrasses his family with his internet podcast."-- Something's bugging Iggy. Iggy comes from a famous family. Well, sort of. His dad directs a cheesy sci-fi web series, his mom writes for it, and his sister has a successful YouTube channel. Iggy doesn't have the acting bug, so he feels like an outsider. Wanting to prove himself, Iggy starts his own podcast about what interests him: insects....

"In this high-interest novel for middle readers, 14-year-old Dylan, sent to live on a remote island with his estranged grandfather, discovers a stranded orca."-- Fourteen-year-old Dylan is sent to live with his estranged grandfather, Angus. Basically strangers, the two avoid each other as best they can. One day Dylan discovers a young orca stranded high up on the rocky beach. Dylan runs to tell his grandfather. There's nothing that can be done, says...

"In this high-interest accessible novel for middle readers, Macy discovers a mermaid in the prairie lake near her home."-- Twelve-year-old Macy is an amateur treasure hunter. She finds all sorts of lost things along the shores of Buffalo Pound Lake. When her mom announces she's leaving her quiet park ranger job at the lake to be a police officer in the city. Macy decides she needs to find a treasure big enough to put Buffalo Pound on the map so her...

"In this high-interest accessible novel for middle readers, teen sleuths Sam and Annabel solve a mystery in the Arctic that has ties to the Franklin Expedition."--

Theo is happy spending his summer searching the river for treasure, even if he mostly just finds empty cans and fishing lures. But one day he discovers a pocket watch in the waters beneath a bridge that's said to be haunted. With a little digging, Theo learns that the pocket watch is linked to a local legend about a ghost of a traveler and buried treasure. He is determined to solve this mystery and posts his progress online, even after he receives...