Everything changes for thirteen-year-old Travis, a new student who is trying to hide a learning disability, when he meets a remarkable teacher and a sassy classmate with her own secrets.

At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a powerful team.

Teased by the school bully because of his Halloween costume, underachieving Hank, with the help of his friends, exacts revenge by creating the scariest and grossest haunted house ever and inviting the bully to visit.

Seventh-grader Joseph Friedman, friendless, puny, and with ADD, spends most of his time hiding in the Resource Room, but when he reluctantly agrees to join the school's cross-country team, he befriends a tough, athletic new student, Heather.

Ravi has just moved to the United States from India and has always been at the top of his class; Joe has lived in the same town his whole life and has learning problems--but when their lives intersect in the first week of fifth grade they are brought together by a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and the need to take control of their lives.