All his classmates make fun of Rodney because he can't pronounce his name, but it is Rodney's speech impediment that drives away the class bully

A much-welcomed snow day turns into an embarrassing nightmare for middle-grader Adam Canfield when, after being mugged by high school bullies for his snow-shoveling money, he becomes the focus of major media attention just as his co-editors at The Slash are launching a contest to out bullies at their school

Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

Because his family has moved again Josh Baxter is starting at a new school for the third time in two years, and this time he has really started off on the wrong foot--but when his mother takes away the video games that have become his refuge because of his poor grades, Josh realizes he has to come up with a new strategy for success.

Jill goes along with the rest of the fifth-grade class in tormenting a classmate and then finds out what it is like when she, too, becomes a target.

When Chester tells his mother about the school bully, she asks him to gather his friends to hear a story about getting along with people who are prickly

April is looking for an escape from the sixth-grade lunch hour, which has become a social-scene nightmare, so she signs up to be a "buddy bench monitor" for the fourth graders' recess. Joey Byrd is a boy on the fringes, who wanders the playground alone, dragging his foot through the dirt. But over time, April realizes that Joey isn't just making random circles. When you look at his designs from above, a story emerges... Joey's "bird's eye" drawings...

"In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so he can concentrate...

High school freshman Kate has a lot on her mind, what with taking care of her heartbroken mother and looking after the family chicken farm in Maryland, but she promised her dying father to look after her older brother who is just back from juvenile detention--and this year that seems to involve paying off the bullies at school by doing their school work.

Will Michael heed the advice of his 2,000-year-old squirrel souvenirs from the Dead Sea, or, in his attempt to get revenge, will he become a bully himself?