All Pineda Matlage wants is to get through the school year and maybe pull an epic prank or two with his friends Junior, Ernesto, and Patsy. But class is disrupted when a slew of American soldiers descends upon their rural Texan town of Soledad. They’ll be carrying out a training exercise and taking over everything, from Pineda’s school to the local government. But Pineda knows why they’re really here. For days, he’s hidden the strange creature who fell from the sky in his parents’ barn. He promised her he’d find her family and help them return home.

Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz’s year. She’s going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school....

Bess Stein is more than ready to be 6th grade class president. She's got tons of ideas—including a book vending machine—and her new friend June is beside her as vice-president. Together, they're unstoppable. But when the books the girls want included in the vending machine come under fire, Bess is stunned. How can one person believe they have the right to decide what other people can read? It turns out that June's mom is leading the fight, and now everything's a mess.

Jojo has everything planned out for the perfect first day of middle school, down to her outfit and hairstyle. But when Mom, distracted by her new live-in boyfriend, Paul, forgets to wake Jojo up, she oversleeps and has to make do with leggings, a t-shirt, and her brother’s hoodie. The day still goes okay until Jojo realizes that she has a hole in her leggings thanks to Purrito, the kitten Paul “gifted” her. Because Paul isn’t just Paul; he’s Mr. Meow, a mega-famous cat-fluencer.

Danilo Osorio Jr.’s baseball skills were once the pride of his father and entire hometown of El Chorrillo, Panamá. But that was then, and this is now… Following 1989's Operation Just Cause, a US military invasion that left his neighborhood decimated, Danilo couldn’t care less about baseball or the father who abandoned him for opportunities in the States. Now Danilo’s focus is taking care of his mamá and sister and trying to save them all from needing to relocate to a refugee camp.

In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too—but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

When A’s friend Yarrow goes missing, he knows it has everything to do with Save our Sons and Daughters. The organization markets themselves as a support group for parents with trans kids, but SOSAD does little more than push fears of a nonexistent “transgender craze," and take every opportunity to turn parents against their children. While Yarrow's disappearance is shocking, it's not altogether surprising; kids have been disappearing from the group for weeks. Still, A never suspected that there was anything supernatural about it, until he finds himself face-to-face with a real-life golem.

Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is worried that something is wrong with her increasingly forgetful grandmother. And to make matters worse, Faillin is holding a referendum on library funding, and things aren’t looking good. Will anything good for Alex ever last?

Seventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it. His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid—a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent—around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.

Patch Simmons has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, so it's goodbye to his French pen-pal Jean-Pierre and hello to the world! Unfortunately, the only other "out" boys in his school year are dating each other, so finding a boyfriend isn't going to be easy... Until fate finally intervenes and two new mysterious boys join drama club: Peter, who’s just moved from New York (very chic) and his best friend, Sam. Patch is confident that one of them (although either of them will do!) will be his first boyfriend.