Ramón de Ocampo
Author
Language
English
Description
Lets face it: Greg Heffley will never change his wimpy ways. Somebody just needs to explain that to Gregs father. You see, Frank Heffley actually thinks he can get his son to toughen up, and he enlists Greg in organized sports and other "manly" endeavors. Of course, Greg is easily able to sidestep his fathers efforts to change him. But when Gregs dad threatens to send him to military academy, Greg realizes he has to shape up … or get shipped...
Author
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English
Appears on these lists
2026 LT Summer Reading - General List
Grateful for Great Reads - YA Fiction November 2025
Score With A Good Book (SCPL-YA)
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Grateful for Great Reads - YA Fiction November 2025
Score With A Good Book (SCPL-YA)
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Description
Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts an athletic scholarship across town, Nasir feels betrayed. While Bunny tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is being evicted. Nasir can't help but wonder why the neighborhood is falling over itself to help Bunny when Wallace is in trouble. When Wallace makes a bet against Bunny, Nasir is faced with an impossible...
3) Dinged
Author
Series
Language
English
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Description
Fourteen-year-old star freshman quarterback Caleb Springer watches his father deteriorate from injuries he suffered playing the very same sport, forcing Caleb to consider whether playing football, the sport of his dreams, is worth risking irreparable physical harm.
4) Game changer
Author
Language
English
Description
Thirteen-year-old Teddy Youngblood is in a coma fighting for his life after an unspecified football injury at training camp. His family and friends flock to his bedside to support his recovery--and to discuss the events leading up to the tragic accident. Was this an inevitable result of playing a violent sport, or was something more sinister happening on the field that day? Told in an innovative, multimedia format combining dialogue, texts, newspaper...
6) Free lunch
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English
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Poverty Awareness Month
2021 Summer Top Picks for Middle Schoolers
2022 Caudill Award Nominees
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2021 Summer Top Picks for Middle Schoolers
2022 Caudill Award Nominees
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Description
"A distinctive new voice: Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day...
7) Road home
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English
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Description
"This final, essential chapter in Rex Ogle's memoir trilogy recounts being forced from his home and living on the streets after his father discovered he was gay. When Rex was outed the summer after he graduated high school, his father gave him a choice: he could stay at home, find a girlfriend, and attend church twice a week, or he could be gay--and leave. Rex left, driving toward the only other gay man he knew and a toxic relationship that would...
9) Rivals
Author
Series
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Summer Reads - 7th & 8th Grade
2022 Summer Top Picks for Middle Schoolers
APL Kids: March Madness
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2022 Summer Top Picks for Middle Schoolers
APL Kids: March Madness
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Description
In basketball-crazed Walthorne, rival middle school stars Austin Chambers and Carter Haswell are both feeling the pressure when school sports reporter Alfie Jenks reveals scandals that jeopardize the whole season. Told through flashbacks, newspaper reports, social media posts, and interviews.
Author
Language
English
Description
For a responsible sixteen-year-old, Michael Wilson has a lot of problems--his father was killed in Afghanistan in 2005, his overworked and overprotective mother will not talk about their situation, and does not want him playing football, and he has suddenly started to receive letters that his father wrote before his death.
11) Punching bag
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English
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Description
"The companion to Rex Ogle's award-winning Free Lunch is a searing account of adolescence in a household torn by domestic violence. Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate,...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
GPLD Best Sci-Fi for Teens
OBD LGBTQIA Pride Month - YOUTH
She's the Kind of Girl They Write Books About (SCPL-YA)
OBD LGBTQIA Pride Month - YOUTH
She's the Kind of Girl They Write Books About (SCPL-YA)
Description
"In his twisty, gritty, profoundly moving New York Times bestselling-debut--also called 'mandatory reading' and selected as an Editors' Choice by the New York Times--Adam Silvera brings to life a charged, dangerous near-future summer in the Bronx. In the months after his father's suicide, it's been tough for sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness again--but he's still gunning for it. With the support of his girlfriend Genevieve and his overworked...
Author
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English
Appears on these lists
Description
Judd Foxman's wife, Jen, has left him for his boss, but after the death of his father and a week of sitting shivah with his enjoyably dysfunctional family presided over by their mother, a celebrated parenting expert despite her children's difficulties, the mourning period brings each of the family members to unexpected epiphanies about their own lives and each other.
Author
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English
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Description
Greg Heffley is caught in the middle as the two halves of his extended family come together in a sidesplittingly relatable summer story! When the Heffley's agree to spend summer break with both Mom's and Dad's relatives at the same time, they have to figure out how to be in two places at once. With Greg caught in the middle, can the Heffley's pull off the ultimate scheme? Or will their vacation turn into a hilarious hot mess?
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
High School 2025 Must Reads (teens)
New YA Fiction
WPL Best of Teen Fiction 2025
YA - Rhythm & Rhyme (WPL-Teen)
New YA Fiction
WPL Best of Teen Fiction 2025
YA - Rhythm & Rhyme (WPL-Teen)
Description
Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That's why she gave him her car. Diego's best friend, Lawson, needs a ride--because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego's not carrying, not selling, it's cool. It's just weed. But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened....
16) The right call
Author
Series
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"Cal Klondike's life revolves around baseball. He's the Walthorne Baseball Academy's star pitcher, and everyone from his coach to his dad to the town sports blogger is telling Cal he has an unlimited future in the sport. But with all this attention comes a lot of added stress, especially as the season kicks into high gear and college and pro scouts start to show up at the games. Inevitably, tensions that have been bubbling under the surface finally...
18) Imaginary
Author
Language
English
Description
Eleven-year-old Zach knows he is too old to have an imaginary playmate, but between grieving for the loss of his father and coping with bullying at school the only place he seems to find joy is in his fantasy world with his best friend Shovel.
Author
Language
English
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Description
Set in the 1930s to today, four generations of Filipino American boys grapple with identity, masculinity, and father-son relationships. Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should've never left the Philippines. Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice...
Author
Series
Diary of a wimpy kid (Series) volume 20
Language
English
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Description
"You're invited -- RSVP for fun! Expect gobs of fun and over-the-top antics as Greg throws an epic birthday party for none other than himself. So come celebrate and laugh alongside Greg, his family, and the entire world of Wimpy Kid fans." -- Provided by publisher.








