Blume, Judy. Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing. 1972. Fudge series. Ages 7-10. More>

• Peter Hatcher’s biggest problem is his brother, Fudge, who always gets into trouble, messes things up, and throws temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. His mom and dad always seem to be more worried about Fudge than Peter, and when Fudge proves too difficult to handle, it’s up to Peter to help out.

Clements, Andrew. Frindle. 1996. Ages 9-12. More>

• Where do words come from? Why is a pen called a pen? Couldn’t it as easily be called a frindle? Nick gets all his friend to use his new word, and his English teacher, the Lone Granger is not at all amused. She tells him to stop, but the word takes on a life of its own. Nick becomes a hero of sorts as his new word spreads from the 5th grade class, to the rest of the junior high school, to the town and across the nation!

Dahl, Roald. Fantastic Mr. Fox. 1970. Ages 4-8. More>

• Boggis, Bunce, and Bean are three of the meanest farmers around, and they are set to get rid of Mr. Fox once and for all. They’ve finally found his fox hole—now all they have to do is wait till he comes out…but Mr. Fox proves he’s smarter than all of them. He comes up with a plan to save himself and his family.

Flieschman, Sid. Bo & Mzzz Mad. 2001. Ages 10-13. More>

• The Gamages and the Martinkas have been involved in a family feud for generations, but the Martinkas are all the family that Bo Gamage has left. He’s forced to move from San Francisco back to the ghost town where his parents are from. He and his cousin, Madeleine or Mzzz Mad, as she calls herself, start off as enemies, but Bo soon finds himself thinking of the Queen of Sheba Hotel home and those “tobacco-spittin’” Martinkas, Mad included, as family.

Griffiths, Andy. The Day My Butt Went Psycho! 2003. Ages 9-12. More>

• Readers Beware: This book is rated G for Gross!!!
  Zach’s butt has run away, and it is up to Zach to stop it and all the other butts from destroying humankind and taking over the world. He teams up with Eleanor, daughter of the greatest Butt Hunter, and the B-Team, the Kisser, the Kicker, and the Smacker on a butt hunt across the Great Windy Desert, through the Brown Forest, and over the Sea of Butts before coming to the great buttcano to face the Great White Butt itself!

Howe, Deborah and James. Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery. Bunnicula series. Ages 8-11. More>

• It all begins when the Monroes find a baby bunny at the movie showing of Dracula, which they bring home and name Bunnicula. Chester the cat thinks there’s something odd about this bunny. His fang-like teeth resemble those of a vampire’s. Harold the family dog thinks he’s mistaken, but then the family find a white tomato, drained of all color. Could it be that Bunnicula sucked the tomato dry and is really a vampire rabbit?

Korman, Gordon. Why did the Underwear Cross the Road? Ages 9-12. More>

• The three “Zs”, Justin Zechendorf, Jessica Zander, and Margaret Zachary have been teamed up together, to compete in Spruce Valley Elementary’s fourth grade Good Dead Contest. Can they win the grand prize, a trip to Tidal Wave, when Justin’s crazy ideas seem only to end in disaster? Korman’s side-splitting humor is guaranteed to please young readers.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. The Boys Start the War. 1993. Ages 9-11. More>

• The Hatford boys weren’t expecting three girls to move into the house across the river where there best friends, the Bensons, used to live. The four brothers decide to make life miserable for the girls so they’ll move out and the Bensons will move back in.

Pilkey, Dav. Captain Underpants series. 1997. Ages 6-10. More>

• Troublemakers and practical jokers, George and Harold use their 3-D Hypno Ring to turn Mr. Krupp, the school principal, into thinking he’s Captain Underpants, the superhero of the comics they’ve created. Now whenever anyone snaps his finger, Mr. Krupp transforms into Captain Underpants and dashes off to fight crime with George and Harold trailing after him to keep him out of trouble.

Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School. 1978. Wayside School series
Ages 6-10. More>

• Wayside School is a school built sideways. It was supposed to be built with 1 story and 30 classrooms side-by-side, instead it was built 30 stories high, one classroom on top the other! This book is a collection of 30 short stories from Mrs. Jewls’s class on the 30th floor. There’s Mrs. Gorf, the teacher before Mrs. Jewls, who turned kids into apples, Jason who gets stuck to his seat by chewing gum—upside down, and Shari who always a big overcoat so she can sleep in class.

Scieszka, Jon. Illustrated by Lane Smith. The Time Warp Trio series. 1991. Ages 8-12. More>

• Join Joe, Sam, and Fred as The Book sends them on misadventures through out time and space from the Stone Age to a hundred years in the future where they meet their own great-granddaughters. They get into one scrape after another—treasure hunting with the infamous pirate Blackbeard, battling an evil knight from King Arthur’s time, interrupting a sacred Mayan game, wrestling Roman gladiators. In each time period, they must locate The Book in order to return safely home.

Scrimger, Richard. The Nose from Jupiter. 1998. Ages 10-13. More>

• Norbert, a tiny alien from Jupiter has taken up residence in Alan Dingwall’s nose. He’s a nose with a big mouth and isn’t afraid to say anything. Ever since Norbert entered Alan’s life, he’s beat up bullies, scored the winning goal against the Cougars in the soccer game, and became friends with Miranda, one of the most athletic and prettiest girls in school.

Stine. R.L. Rotten School #1:  The Big Blueberry Barf-Off! 2005
Rotten School Kids series. Ages 8-12. More>

• From the author of Goosebumps comes a series about the antics of the students of the boarding school, Rotten School. Meet Bernie Bridges of Rotten House and his archenemy Sherman Oaks of Nyce House. In this first book, Bernie Bridges comes up with a plan to win Sherman’s new watch. He and his friends challenge Sherman and the students of Nyce House to the world’s grossest pie-eating contest.

Strasser, Todd. Kidnap Kids. 1998. Ages 9-12. More>

• Steven’s mother is a high-profiled attorney. His father is an entrepreneur who travels the world on business. Steven and his younger are tired of never seeing their parents, so during a getaway in the woods, they decide to kidnap their parents for the weekend.

Wardlaw, Lee. 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher. 2005. Ages 9-12. More>

• Seventh-grade inventor Steve “Sneeze” Wyatt is afraid to admit that he has “inventor’s block”. His classmates expect him to come up with a fantastic history project for the History Faire, but they’re not too excited his suggestion of mummifying a chicken. His teacher Ms. Pierce, or “Fierce” as the students call her, seems intent on failing him, and his parents decide he should skip the eighth grade and go directly to high school. Sneeze decides he’ll be better off causing trouble for his teachers so that he can remain with his friends in junior high.

compiled by Camille Keo