Claudia Mills

When feuding neighbors Sonnet and Zeke are paired up for a class project, they unearth a secret that could uproot Sonnet’s family—or allow it to finally heal and grow.
Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s family has just moved across the country to live with her grandfather after her nana dies. Gramps’s once-impressive apple orchard has been razed for a housing development, with only one heirloom tree left. Sonnet doesn’t...

Twelve-year-old Maggie comes to dread biology class because her favorite teacher is insisting that she dissect a worm, an assignment that makes her feel very squeamish and awakens her to the question of animal rights.

When their mother's behavior changes and she starts to neglect her children, seventh-grader Cooper and his little sister take refuge in Inchland, an imaginary country inspired by deeds to one square inch of land that their grandfather gave them.

Although he knows that his efforts to impress a beautiful student teacher and outdo his perfect older brother jeopardize his status in the losers' club that he and his best friend have started, twelve-year-old Ethan realizes that he no longer wants to be a loser.

Lizzie, who has always been considered a nerd by the other kids, begins the seventh grade determined to change her image so that she can blend in better with the popular crowd.

Third-grader Wilson struggles with his times-tables in order to beat the class deadline.

The sequel to Losers, Inc. Twelve-year-old Julius Zimmerman is the former vice president of the defunct organization Losers, Inc. Ethan Winfield, the former president, no longer feels like a loser. But Julius still does, maybe because his mother thinks of him that way. To "improve" him, Mrs. Zimmerman signs Julius up for a summer course in intensive French and for a part-time job baby-sitting three-year-old Edison Blue. She also sets a summer reading...

Dinah Seabrooke is in seventh grade and distraught at learning that the sun will vaporize the earth in about 5 billion years. Nothing matters anymore-not class elections, the school play, even her relationship with Nick. Then Dinah suffers her first loss and discovers the reasons to live fully even though nothing lasts forever.

Kelsey Green is the best reader in the third grade--well, maybe tied for best with know-it-all Simon Ellis. When the principal Mr. Boone announces a school-wide reading contest, complete with a pizza party for the winning class and a special certificate for the top readers in each grade, she knows she's just the person to lead Mrs. Molina's third graders to victory. But how can they win when her classmate Cody Harmon doesn't want to read anything,...

Chelsea learns she is perfectly human. If Chelsea Garing likes anything better than school, it's church, especially when she gets the chance to shine. Unfortunately, Chelsea can't perform perfectly every time. One day, when she's serving as acolyte, her candle lighter unexpectedly goes out. Another day, when she's acting a role from the Good Samaritan story in Sunday school, annoying Danny Repetti plows into her. Why her friend Naomi Goldberg doesn't...