Many residents of Middleburg, Indiana, are already going crazy from the ever-ringing church bells and now, after a bat is spotted in the hotel run by Bernie's family, they worry that the dangerous Indiana Aztec bat has finally arrived.

Bodies are coming and going from the Bessledorf Hotel - dead and alive! Bernie's determined to get to the bottom of the case.

Marty will do anything to save his new friend Shiloh in this Newbery Medal–winning novel from Phillis Reynolds Naylor. When Marty Preston comes across a young beagle in the hills behind his home, it's love at first sight—and also big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names Shiloh, belongs to Judd Travers, who drinks too much and has a gun—and abuses his dogs. So when Shiloh runs away from Judd to Marty, Marty just has to hide him and protect him from Judd. But Marty's secret becomes too big for him to keep to himself, and it exposes his entire family to Judd's anger. How far will Marty have to go to make Shiloh his?

Finally, Alice is thirteen. But being a teenager isn't always as fantastic as Alice dreamed it would be. A sophisticated night on the town with her brother, Lester, and an overnight train trip to Chicago with Elizabeth and Pamela are exciting, but they also give her a first-hand look at some of the perils of grown-up life. The problem is, Alice doesn't really feel like a grown-up. But she doesn't feel like a kid anymore, either. She feels in-between -- and that's a pretty confusing place to be!

Bernie's attempt to marry off his sister Delores and get her out of the houseresults in mystery and near-disaster at the Bessledorf Parachute Factory.

Life, Alice McKinley feels, is just one big embarrassment. Here she is, about to be a teenager and she doesn't know how. It's worse for her than for anyone else, she believes, because she has no role model. Her mother has been dead for years. Help and advice can only come from her father, manager of a music store, and her nineteen-year-old brother, who is a slob. What do they know about being a teen age girl? What she needs, Alice decides, is a gorgeous woman who does everything right, as a roadmap, so to speak. If only she finds herself, when school begins, in the classroom of the beautiful sixth-grade teacher, Miss Cole, her troubles will be over. Unfortunately, she draws the homely, pear-shaped Mrs. Plotkin. One of Mrs. Plotkin's first assignments is for each member of the class to keep a journal of their thoughts and feelings. Alice calls hers "The Agony of Alice," and in it she records all the embarrassing things that happen to her. Through the school year, Alice has lots to record. She also comes to know the lovely Miss Cole, as well as Mrs. Plotkin. And she meets an aunt and a female cousin whom she has not really known before. Out of all this, to her amazement, comes a role model -- one that she would never have accepted before she made a few very important discoveries on her own, things no roadmap could have shown her. Alice moves on, ready to be a wise teenager.

The people of Middleburg search for buried treasure around Bessledorf Hill and the Bessledorf Hotel.

What happened to the class hamster? Find out in this Edgar Award–winning mystery story with some “delightfully comic twists” (Kirkus Reviews). When Junior brings home the classroom hamster, Scooty, he decides to build the best hamster tunnel ever. But when Scooty goes missing, all evidence points to Mud. Meanwhile, Mad Mary is missing, too—although her bag and walking stick were found near the highway. When Mary later wakes up in the hospital, she realizes that the Blossoms might just have provided her with the strength she needs to pull her life back together. It’s anything but an ordinary weekend with the Blossoms! Perfect for young dog lovers, this Edgar Award–winning Blossom Family title is a mysterious and touching finale to the bestselling series by Newbery Medal-winning author Betsy Byars.

Seventh grader Alice decides that the only way to stave off personal and social disasters is to be part of the crowd, especially the in crowd, no matter how boring and, potentially, difficult.

It’s spring break and the only assignment Wally Hatford and Caroline Malloy have is to do something that they have never done before. Wally’s sure that will be a cinch once he hears the great news about the mighty Benson brothers coming to stay for vacation. It will be nonstop action all the way. For starters, the nine Benson and Hatford boys plan on scaring the three Malloy sisters silly by convincing them that their house is haunted. Of course, the boys don’t know that the girls are hard at work plotting their own special surprise welcome. The Bensons don’t know what they’re up against with the Malloy girls. But they soon will. Meanwhile, everyone in town knows there’s a hungry cougar on the prowl. When the kids decide to take a break from their tricks and join forces in catching the cougar, guess who gets stuck with the scariest job? This will surely be something no one has ever done before.