Take a look behind the bully in this modern classic from Newbery medalist Jerry Spinelli that packs a punch. And don’t miss the highly anticipated new novel, Dead Wednesday.

Cocky seventh-grade super-jock Crash Coogan got his nickname the day he used his first football helmet to knock his cousin Bridget flat on her backside. And he has been running over people ever since, especially Penn Webb, the dweeby, vegetarian Quaker kid who lives down the block. Through the eyes of Crash, readers get a rare glimpse into the life of a bully in this unforgettable and beloved story about stereotypes and the surprises life can bring.

“Readers will devour this humorous glimpse of what jocks are made of.” —School Library Journal, starred review

Can playing dead bring you back to life? Maybe on Dead Wednesday… On this day the worlds of a shy boy and a gone girl collide, and the connection they make will change them both forever. A brilliant new novel from the Newbery Medal winner and author of the New York Times bestseller Stargirl.
 
“Jerry Spinelli has created another middle grade masterpiece.” —BookPage, starred review
 
On Dead Wednesday, every eighth grader in Amber Springs is assigned the name and identity of a teenager who died a preventable death in the past year. The kids don black shirts and for the whole day everyone in town pretends they’re invisible—as if they weren’t even there. The adults think it will make them contemplate their mortality. The kids know it’s a free pass to get away with anything.
 
Worm Tarnauer feels invisible every day. He’s perfectly happy being the unnoticed sidekick of his friend Eddie. So he’s not expecting Dead Wednesday to feel that different. But he didn’t count on being assigned Becca Finch (17, car crash). And he certainly didn’t count on Becca showing up to boss him around! Letting this girl into his head is about to change everything.
 
This is the story of the unexpected, heartbreaking, hilarious, truly epic day when Worm Tarnauer discovers his own life.

Welcome to Hokey Pokey. A place and a time, when childhood is at its best: games to play, bikes to ride, experiences to be had. There are no adults in Hokey Pokey, just kids, and the laws governing Hokey Pokey are simple and finite. But when one of the biggest kids, Jack, has his beloved bike stolen—and by a girl, no less—his entire world, and the world of Hokey Pokey, turns to chaos. Without his bike, Jack feels like everything has started to go wrong. He feels different, not like himself, and he knows something is about to change. And even more troubling he alone hears a faint train whistle. But that’s impossible: every kid knows there no trains in Hokey Pokey, only tracks.

Master storyteller Jerry Spinelli has written a dizzingly inventive fable of growing up and letting go, of leaving childhood and its imagination play behind for the more dazzling adventures of adolescence, and of learning to accept not only the sunny part of day, but the unwelcome arrival of night, as well.

Beloved Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli, author of Maniac Magee and Wringer, addresses issues of identity, belonging, family, and bullying in this humorous and heartfelt novel about twins.

Jake and Lily are twins. Despite their slightly different interests and temperaments, they feel exactly the same–like two halves of one person. But the year they turn eleven, everything changes. Their parents announce it’s time for separate bedrooms. Jake starts hanging out with a pack of boys on the block. And Lily is devastated, not to mention angry. Who is she without Jake? And as her brother falls under the influence of the neighborhood bully, he also must ask himself–who is the real Jake?

This is an often funny, poignant, and profound story of growing up, growing apart, and the difficult process of figuring out who you really are.

From renowned Newbery-winning author Jerry Spinelli comes a powerful story about how not fitting in just might lead to an incredible life. This classic book is perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Carl Hiaasen.

Just like other kids, Zinkoff rides his bike, hopes for snow days, and wants to be like his dad when he grows up. But Zinkoff also raises his hand with all the wrong answers, trips over his own feet, and falls down with laughter over a word like “Jabip.”

Other kids have their own word to describe him, but Zinkoff is too busy to hear it. He doesn’t know he’s not like everyone else. And one winter night, Zinkoff’s differences show that any name can someday become “hero.”

With some of his finest writing to date and great wit and humor, Jerry Spinelli creates a story about a boy’s individuality surpassing the need to fit in and the genuine importance of failure. As readers follow Zinkoff from first through sixth grade, it becomes impossible not to identify with and root for him through failures and triumphs. The perfect classroom read.

Stargirl has moved and left everything behind: Arizona, Mica High, enchanted desert places–and Leo. He’s all she can think about, and her life begins to feel like a parade of unhappy anniversaries. Then Stargirl meets her wonderfully bizarre new neighbors: Dootsie, the curly-headed five-year-old “human bean”; Betty Lou, who hasn’t stepped outside her house for nine years; Charlie, who sits among the tombstones; hot-tempered Alvina with that one glittery nail; and Perry Delloplane, the blue-eyed thief who soon lays his own claim to Stargirl’s heart.
In letters to Leo over the course of a year, Stargirl comes to find hope in new places: mockingbirds, donut angels, moon flowers, and the Winter Solstice. But what’s life without Leo? Will he–can he–answer that one crucial question she asks every morning to the rising sun?

He wasn’t born with the name Maniac Magee. He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend. Even today kids talk about how fast he could run; about how he hit an inside-the-park “frog” homer; how no knot, no matter how snarled, would stay that way once he began to untie it. But the thing Maniac Magee is best known for is what he did for the kids from the East Side and those from the West Side.

A stunning novel of the Holocaust from Newbery Medalist, Jerry Spinelli. And don’t miss the author’s highly anticipated new novel, Dead Wednesday!

He’s a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Filthy son of Abraham.

He’s a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He’s a boy who steals food for himself, and the other orphans. He’s a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels.

He’s a boy who wants to be a Nazi, with tall, shiny jackboots of his own-until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind.

And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he’s a boy who realizes it’s safest of all to be nobody.

Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginable-Nazi-occupied Warsaw during World War II-and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young Holocaust orphan.

For Jason, entering the seventh grade is like walking into a dangerous new world. Now that he’s in junior high school, he’s a small fish in a big pond stocked full of ninth-graders. It’s so scary that he won’t even go to the bathroom if there’s a ninth-grader in there-no matter how badly he has to go! But it isn’t all bad. He’s working on a model space station in shop class, and he’s beginning to notice things he never paid attention to before, like body hair-and girls. Especially one girl: the beautiful, hair-flicking cheerleader Debbie Breen. This wonderfully realistic audiobook, written by Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli, attracts teen-aged readers with its combination of honesty and embarrassingly funny situations familiar to every teenager. Johnny Heller captures Jason’s emotional roller coaster ride as his boggled mind tries to keep pace with his friends, family, school, and his changing body.

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME  •  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

And don’t miss the author’s highly anticipated new novel, Dead Wednesday!
Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’ s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Don’t miss the sequel, Love, Stargirl, as well as The Warden’s Daughter, a novel about another girl who can’t help but stand out.
 
“Spinelli is a poet of the prepubescent. . . . No writer guides his young characters, and his readers, past these pitfalls and challenges and toward their futures with more compassion.” —The New York Times

From Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli comes the story of a girl searching for happiness inside the walls of a prison. And don’t miss the author’s highly anticipated new novel, Dead Wednesday!

Cammie O’Reilly lives at the Hancock County Prison–not as a prisoner, she’s the warden’s daughter. She spends the mornings hanging out with shoplifters and reformed arsonists in the women’s excercise yard, which gives Cammie a certain cache with her school friends. 

But even though Cammie’s free to leave the prison, she’s still stuck. And sad, and really mad. Her mother died saving her from harm when she was just a baby. You wouldn’t think you could miss something you never had, but on the eve of her thirteenth birthday, the thing Cammie most wants is a mom. A prison might not be the best place to search for a mother, but Cammie is determined and she’s willing to work with what she’s got.

“A tapestry of grief and redemption, woven by a master storyteller ….Moving and memorable.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Last year, Masie Potter was voted most outstanding seventh grade female athlete. She is a super basketball player. But last summer, she developed a crush on classmate Eric Delong. Now her priorities have changed. She will do anything to be near Eric-even join the wrestling team. From the first, Masie gets opposition and antagonism from all sides: friends, classmates, teachers. Soon, her place on the team isn’t about Eric any more. It’s about determination, discipline, and perseverance. As Masie struggles against opponents on the mat, she must also deal with cruel jeers and taunts in the halls. Can Masie be a champion? Jerry Spinelli has written many popular books for young readers, including Space Station Seventh Grade and Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush? With a solid talent for creating realistic characters and dialog, he is sure to have listeners cheering for the feisty Masie as she wrestles with some of the tougher issues of peer pressure.

Megin is 12; her brother Greg is 14. Megin is a slob; Greg is fastidious. They call each other Megamouth and Grosso. Between the two, the household is filled with their teasing and fighting. They are experts at the usual games of sibling rivalry and experts at inventing new ones. From carefully-planted cockroaches to creme doughnut fights, Megin and Greg’s antics keep them in constant trouble. But even as they think up new ways to bug each other, they are also growing up. Soon, their rivalry will put them both to tests that have higher stakes than either Megin or Greg can imagine. Jerry Spinelli, a Newbery Medalist, has raised six children, so he has plenty of firsthand information about kids like Megin and Greg. This energetic audiobook is a riotous trip through the early teenage years, especially with its dual narration by two of the most spirited readers of children’s literature. If you enjoy this book, listen to Jerry Spinelli’s Crash, an ALSC Notable Recording.

Newbery Honor Book * ALA Notable Children’s Book

“Deeply felt. Presents a moral question with great care and sensitivity.” —The New York Times

“A spellbinding story about rites of passage.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A realistic story with the intensity of a fable.” —The Horn Book (starred review)

“Thought-provoking.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

In Palmer LaRue’s hometown of Waymer, turning ten is the biggest event of a boy’s life. But for Palmer, his tenth birthday is not something to look forward to, but something to dread. Then one day, a visitor appears on his windowsill, and Palmer knows that this, more than anything else, is a sign that his time is up. Somehow, he must learn how to stop being afraid and stand up for what he believes in.

Wringer is a powerful tour de force from Newbery Medal winner Jerry Spinelli.