COVER CHARACTERISTIC (#4): SCHOOLS

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." 

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

*Cover Characteristic is a book meme hosted by Sugar & Snark. Check it out and participate!

6. The 100th Day of School from the Black Lagoon (Black Lagoon Adventures #21) by Mike Thaler, Jared Lee (Illustrator)

Summary:

These fun-filled chapter books mix school, monsters, and common kid problems with hilarious results. You'll scream with laughter!

Hubie's class is celebrating the 100th day of school by having each student bring in 100 of something. But Hubie has no idea what to choose. Should he go with 100 hairs on his head? 100 baseball cards? What can Hubie pick out of all the hundreds of 100 items he could bring?

5. Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova

Summary:

Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don't get noticed by the mean kids.

Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them.

On her first day at her new school, Penelope--Peppi--Torres reminds herself of these basics. But when she trips into a quiet boy in the hall, Jaime Thompson, she's already broken the first rule, and the mean kids start calling her the "nerder girlfriend." How does she handle this crisis? By shoving poor Jaime and running away!

Falling back on rule two and surrounding herself with new friends in the art club, Peppi still can't help feeling ashamed about the way she treated Jaime. Things are already awkward enough between the two, but to make matters worse, he's a member of her own club's archrivals--the science club! And when the two clubs go to war, Peppi realizes that sometimes you have to break the rules to survive middle school!

4. Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks, Gita Varadarajan

Summary:

Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they're both stuck in the same place: SCHOOL.

Joe's lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own.

Ravi's family just moved to America from India, and he's finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in.

Joe and Ravi don't think they have anything in common -- but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.

3. Star Wars: Jedi Academy (Jedi Academy #1) by Jeffrey Brown

Summary:

New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Jeffrey Brown takes readers to a middle school in a galaxy far, far away...

This incredible, original story captures all of the humor, awkwardness, fun, and frustrations of middle school--all told through one boy's comics, journal entries, letters, doodles, and newspaper clippings. The setting? A galaxy far, far away...

Roan's one dream is to leave home and attend Pilot Academy like his older brother, father, and grandfather. But just as Roan is mysteriously denied entrance to Pilot School, he is invited to attend Jedi Academy--a school that he didn't apply to and only recruits children when they are just a few years old. That is, until now...

This inventive novel follows Roan's first year at Jedi Academy where, under the tutelage of Master Yoda, he learns that he possesses more strength and potential than he could have ever dreamed. Oh, and he learns other important things too--like how to make a baking soda volcano, fence with a lightsaber, slow dance with a girl, and lift boulders with the Force.

2. Study Hall of Justice (DC Comics: Secret Hero Society #1) by Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen (Illustrations)

Summary:

Being the new kid at school is tough, especially when your school is called Ducard Academy and your name is Bruce Wayne. There's a gang of jokers roaming the halls, a muscle-headed kid named Bane wants to beat you up, and your headmaster Hugo Strange seems really, well, strange.

This inventive novel follows young Bruce Wayne and his friends Clark (Superman) and Diana (Wonder Woman) as they start a Junior Detective Agency to investigate their teachers and find out what's going on behind closed doors at Ducard Academy, all before recess.

This all-new story presents a twist on the idea of junior sleuths, using comics, journal entries, and doodles to reimagine Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman as three students in the same school. They'll try their best to solve their case, but just because you're faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive, it doesn't mean you get to stay up past eleven.

1. Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School #1) by Jen Calonita

Summary:

Would you send a villain to do a hero's job? An exciting new twisted fairy tale series from award-winning author Jen Calonita.

Full of regret, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Flora, has founded the Fairy Tale Reform School with the mission of turning the wicked and criminally mischievous into upstanding members of Enchantasia.

Impish, sassy 12-year-old Gilly has a history of petty theft and she's not too sorry about it. When she lifts a hair clip, she gets tossed in reform school-for at least three months. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its sweet mission. There's a battle brewing and she starts to wonder: can a villain really change?