Claudia Mills

"The third book in the Franklin School Friends series is a fast and funny story about sports, friendship, and sibling rivalries"--

Twelve-year-old Sonnet grapples with the loss of her grandfather's apple orchard, disrupted by a housing development, and forms an uneasy relationship with her neighbor Zeke after they discover a family secret that has the potential to disrupt Sonnet's family or bring about healing and growth.

Seventh-grade honor student Sierra Shepard faces expulsion after accidentally bringing a paring knife to school, violating the school's zero-tolerance policy.

Third-grader Vera, a budding artist who loves every minute of her after-school comic-book camp, searches for a way to get her mother's permission to attend the camp's final field trip to Comic-Con.

Dinah Seabrooke is in seventh grade and distraught at learning that the sun will vaporize the earth in about 5 billion years. Nothing matters anymore-not class elections, the school play, even her relationship with Nick. Then Dinah suffers her first loss and discovers the reasons to live fully even though nothing lasts forever.

Ethan Winfield has never been an academic or athletic star like his older brother, Peter. But, does that make him a failure? Of course not. Still, Ethan and his best friend, Julius Zimmerman, decide that they qualify to found an exclusive club: Losers, Inc. No sooner have they done this, however, than both boys fall in love with the new student teacher. Ethan knows right away that to impress Ms. Gunderson he has to excel. Instead of reading the shortest...

Pretty is as pretty does. Pretty, popular Marcia Faitak is not her usual self. Over the summer, she gained five pounds, and when school begins, Marcia, desperate for an invitation from Alex Ryan to the October dance, goes on a diet. In art class, she's supposed to bring a red apple to life on paper, but all she wants to do is eat it. Mr. Morrison doesn't like her work anyway: disdainfully, he calls her drawing of a beautiful girl "Barbie." Worse...

Cooper's grandfather gives him and his little sister, Carly, deeds to square inches of land in the Yukon. Carly uses them to invent her own imaginary kingdom of Inchland-far away from the silence of their home, where their single mother stays in bed all day. When their mom comes out of her season of sadness bursting with sometimes frightening energy, Carly retreats into Inchland, while sixth-grader Cooper tries to control the chaos. But can Cooper...

The sequel to Losers, Inc. and You're a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman As seventh grade begins, Lizzie Archer knows she can't endure another year of being derided as the class nerd. Maybe she can't stop being smart, does she want to? But at least she doesn't have to look so different. Out of her Emily Dickinson dresses and into Gap jeans she goes, and the effect is amazing. The girls talk to her; the boys tease her. But, her braininess remains an obstacle...

Chelsea learns she is perfectly human. If Chelsea Garing likes anything better than school, it's church, especially when she gets the chance to shine. Unfortunately, Chelsea can't perform perfectly every time. One day, when she's serving as acolyte, her candle lighter unexpectedly goes out. Another day, when she's acting a role from the Good Samaritan story in Sunday school, annoying Danny Repetti plows into her. Why her friend Naomi Goldberg doesn't...