Autistic and nearly nonverbal, twelve-year-old Nova is happy in her new foster home and school, but eagerly anticipates the 1986 Challenger launch, for which her sister, Bridget, promised to return.

Returning to the Jedi Academy, Victor struggles with his older sister's upcoming graduation and contemplates returning to his old ways of being the class clown.

When eighth-grader Cameron Boxer creates the Positive Action Group at school he intends it as a diversion to fool his parents, teachers, and sister into letting him continue to concentrate on his video-gaming--but before he knows it other kids are taking it seriously, and soon he finds himself president of the P.A.G., and involved in community service, so the boy who never cared about anything is now the center of everything, whether he likes it or...

"In order to avoid extra work, middle schooler Newell agrees to participate in a school-wide talent show--without a talent"--

Seventh-grader Torry is feeling pressure on the basketball court because he has to guard a player on the rival team who is bigger and older than he is.

Seventh-grader Will's Bar Mitzvah community service project, visiting an incurably ill older boy in the hospital, leads to a friendship that is life-changing for both them and those around them.

"A biracial Indian/Caucasian girl is nervous to begin middle school, especially since her mother is now the breadwinner of the family, her best friend may no longer be a bestie, and the appearance of the seventeen hairs over her lip that form a very unwanted mustache"--

"A strange combination of Ebenezer Scrooge and Lego Batman helps Rob Burnside save his school"--

When Abby Miller confesses her crush on Jake during a game of Truth or Dare and then receives a text message warning her to stay away from him, she starts suspecting that her stalker is a ghost, and not a jealous classmate.

Since her father's death, Cora, twelve, longs for a permanent home for herself, her special-needs sister, and their mother while navigating middle school and studying trees using her father's field notes.