Travel to the colorful and chaotic streets of India from the comfort of your home in this hilarious and heartfelt story about friendship and family. When aspiring photographer Dylan Moore is invited to join his best friend Rohit Lal on a family trip to India, he jumps at the chance to embark on an exciting journey just like their Lord of the Rings heroes, Frodo and Sam. But each boy comes to the trip with a problem: Rohit is desperate to convince his parents not to leave him behind in Mumbai to finish school, and Dylan is desperate to use his time in India to prove himself as a photographer and to avoid his parents' constant fighting. Keeping their struggles to themselves threatens to tear the boys apart. But when disaster strikes, Dylan and Rohit realize they have to set aside their differences to navigate India safely, confront their family issues, and salvage their friendship.

Reaching Reluctant Young Readers features 150 middle-grade books. Each profiled title has the potential to hook the reluctant reader and lure them to read the entire book. To specifically encourage elementary and middle-school-age reluctant children to read, there is first a pitch to get the reader’s attention. That is followed by a short reading passage to “set the hook” and encourage the young person to read the rest of the book on their own. Further, the book contains several hundred additional recommended titles. The books selected for this collection were chosen following the criteria of reluctant reader books created by the Quick Picks committee sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association. While these guidelines were designed for young adult books, they also work well for middle-grade books. The criteria include: clear writing (no convoluted long sentences with sophisticated vocabulary), high interest “hook” in the first few pages, well-defined characters, interesting plot, and familiar themes.

Critically acclaimed author Barry Lyga's middle-grade debut ARCHVILLAIN now in paperback!Kyle Camden knows exactly where he was the night Mighty Mike arrived: sneaking around the fallow field behind Bouring Middle School, preparing one of his most ingenious pranks yet.Which is why he couldn't tell anyone where he was. Or what he saw.Those lights everyone saw in the sky weren't tiny meteors burning up in the atmosphere. They were some kind of strange, supercooled plasma that bathed the entire field -- including Kyle -- in alien energies.Unfortunately, the energies also brought Mighty Mike to Earth. Kyle is the only one who knows that Mighty Mike is an alien. Everyone else thinks that Mike is just some kid who stumbled into the field, got beefed up on meteor juice, lost his memory, and decided to start rescuing kittens from trees. But Kyle knows the truth. And he'll do anything in his power to stop Mighty Mike, even if it means being an Archvillain!

For anyone who's ever felt that boys were a different species....Wildly creative seventh grader Kara McAllister just had her best idea yet. She's going to take notes on all of the boys in her grade (and a few elsewhere) in order to answer a seemingly simple question: How can she get a boyfriend?But Kara's project turns out to be a lot more complicated than she imagined. Soon there are secrets, lies, and an embarrassing incident in the boy's bathroom. Plus, Kara has to deal with mean girls, her slightly spacey BFF, and some surprising uses for duct tape. Still, if Kara's research leads her to the right boy, everything may just be worth it. . . .Full of charts and graphs, heart and humor, this hilarious debut will resonate with tweens everywhere.

Newbery Honor author Rodman Philbrick sends readers rushing down a raging river on a life-or-death adventure when a white water rafting trip goes terribly wrong! Daniel Redmayne is fast asleep on the first night of a white water rafting trip, when he's awoken by screams. The dam has failed. The river is surging, and their camp will be under water in a matter of moments.As the shrieking roar of the river rushes closer, the kids scramble to higher ground. They make it; their counselors do not.Now they're on their own, with barely any food or supplies, in the middle of the Montana wilderness. Do Daniel and his four classmates have what it takes to stay alive until they can get rescued? Alone in the wild, they forge powerful bonds -- but develop dangerous disagreements. If nature doesn't break them, they might just destroy each other.This gripping survival story from the Newbery Honor author of Wildfire is filled with adrenaline-pumping adventure and moments of true bravery.

The war is over, but Ellen's secret still haunts her in this tense sequel toKeeping Secrets. Ellen is now thirteen, living in an upstairs flat with her parents in Morpeth, England. In the aftermath of World War II, many of her neighbours mistrust the German prisoners of war who still live among them, and resent the POWs for taking scarce jobs away. In Keeping Secrets, Ellen helped a German POW escape. Now she worries that he may never have gotten away, and is still in Morpeth. What if her neighbours find out what she did? Jean Booker explores the complex and often turbulent process of rebuilding in the aftermath of war in this realistic tale based on her own experience growing up in England during and after WWII.

The final book in Lasky's best-selling animal series.The strange, maniacal blue owl known as the Striga has been rousted from the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Nyra, leader of the vicious Pure Ones, is either dead or laying low in some distant land,leaving the tree finally at peace. As if fed by an invisible spring, learning and the lively arts flourish at the great tree and spread throughout the owl kingdoms.But unbeknowst to the Guardians, in a long-empty cave deep in the Northern Kingdoms two ruthless villains join forces to conjure an ancient evil, an evil that will do their bidding and wreak havoc on the world.

Combining the heart of her Newbery Honor-winning fiction and the spirit of her legendary Baby-Sitters Club series, Ann M. Martin introduces a timeless new series for girls. Flora and Ruby do not want to move to Camden Falls. But they don't really have a choice -- their parents are dead and their grandmother, Min, is taking them in. It's strange to be in a new place. But luckily, it's a very welcoming place.Min runs a sewing store, Needle & Thread, at the heart of Main Street in Camden Falls. There, Flora and Ruby become friends with Olivia, who likes to organize things, and Nikki, who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Even if Flora and Ruby never expected it to, Camden Falls becomes their home . . . and its stories become a part of their stories.

One of Jenny McAfee's friends who is not normally a good student makes the finals of a history contest, and rumors start that she cheated.

This coming-of-age story is a tale of fantasy and mystery, of goblins, elves, and flying reindeer, and of how a boy from the humblest beginnings fulfills his destiny.