An oral history that reports, through transcribed recordings, text messages, photographs, illustrations, screenshots, and more, on the First (and last) Annual Culvert Prep Middle School Scavenger Hunt For Charity, and the adventures of twelve-year-old twins Reese and Claudia Tapper as their highly competitive teams scour New York for treasure.

"Oddonis may be the son of Zeus, but he's a little bit odd for a god. He's so odd, in fact, he's not sure if he has any powers at all. And if that isn't enough, his twin brother Adonis is the most popular, most athletic, and most otherworldly handsome god of them all. Oddonis's future at Mount Olympus Middle isn't looking bright, especially when he makes the last-minute decision to run against Adonis to be class president. With the help of his friends...

"Charlie has a foolproof plan for the first day at her new middle school. Even though she's used to starting over as the new kid-thanks to her military family's constant moving-making friends has never been easy for her. But this time, her first impression needs to last, since this is where her family plans to settle for good. So she's hiding any interests that may seem 'babyish,' updating her look, and doing her best to leave her shyness behind her...but...

"The last person family lawyer Sandy Moss expects to walk into her courtroom, right in the middle of a trial, is TV star Patrick McNabb: prime suspect in her first (and she hopes, last) murder case. Sandy knows what Patrick’s like. Friendly, overconfident, dazzlingly handsome. . . and a well-meaning menace. But his request seems harmless enough. His dear friend Cynthia is getting divorced, and he thinks Sandy’s perfect for the job. She...

"Middle school is tough for Dave. He spends most of his time drawing and living in his own imaginative world. And he's terrified that his classmates will find out and think he's even weirder than they do already. But an extraordinary thing happens when Dave and his friend build a time machine for their science project. Dave travels back to the first day of school (or so he thinks) and is given the opportunity to do a complete reset. Can he do everything...

"In his daydreams, Jensen is the biggest hero that ever was, saving the world and his friends on a daily basis. But his middle school reality is VERY different - math is hard, getting along with friends is hard...Even finding a partner for the class project is a big problem when you always get picked last. And the pressure's on even more once the school newspaper's dynamic duo, Jenny and Akilah, draw Jensen into the whirlwind of school news, social...

"It's been a tough year for Sasha--he's been bullied at his middle school and his anxiety, which he calls the Gray, is growing. Sasha's dad tells him to "toughen up"--and he does, but with unfortunate, hurtful results. His parents and therapist agree that a summer in the country with his aunt might be the best medicine, but it's the last place he wants to be. He'll be away from his best friend, video games, and stuck in the house that reminds him...

"In The Last Great Road Bum, Héctor Tobar turns the peripatetic true story of a naive son of Urbana, Illinois, who died fighting with guerrillas in El Salvador into the great American novel for our times. Joe Sanderson died in pursuit of a life worth writing about. He was, in his words, a 'road bum,' an adventurer and a storyteller, belonging to no place, people, or set of ideas. He was born into a childhood of middle-class contentment in Urbana,...

"Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Michael B. Oren's magnificent Six Days of War, an Internationally acclaimed bestseller, is the first comprehensive account of this epoch-making event." "Oren reconstructs...

"Bruno, the beloved chief of police of the idyllic French town of St. Denis in the Dordogne, is back! This time a mysterious death brings ancient secrets to light, and it's up to our hero--and favorite gourmand--to connect the tangled threads of past and present When a woman's body is found at the foot of a cliff near St. Denis, Bruno suspects a connection to the great ruined Château de Commarque, a long-ago Knights Templar stronghold that stands...