New Releases by Andrew Clements

In the long-awaited follow-up to the beloved classic Frindle, a new generation of kids discovers the power of words and imagination – and yes, even screens – to solve a mystery and change their world! “A fitting final work from a master storyteller.”—Kirkus Reviews Josh Willet is a techie, a serious gamer. Which is why Josh and his friends can’t stand Mr. N’s ELA class; it’s a strict no-tech zone. Mr. N makes them write everything out by hand, he won’t use a Smartboard, and he’s obsessed with some hundred-year-old grammar book. Then Josh discovers a secret; turns out Mr. N''s been keeping a lot more than technology from his students! Together with his best friend Vanessa, and using all the computer skills they’ve got, Josh is determined to solve the mystery of Mr. N’s past. And maybe get some screentime back, too? Andrew Clements’s final novel is a timely one—about the importance of language, the changes that come along with technology (good and bad), and how sometimes you have to challenge what you think you know. Set a whole generation later, this novel can be read on its own or alongside Frindle and is destined to become another timeless classic.

A fabulous school story about fads and friendship from the bestselling author of Frindle. This is war. Okay--that''s too dramatic. But no matter what this is called, so far I''m winning. And it feels wonderful. Grace and Ellie have been best friends since second grade. Ellie''s always right in the center of everything--and Grace is usually happy to be Ellie''s sidekick. But what happens when everything changes? This time it''s Grace who suddenly has everyone''s attention when she accidentally starts a new fad at school. A fad that has first her class, then her grade, and then the entire school collecting and trading and even fighting over . . . buttons?! A fad that might get her in major trouble and could even be the end of Grace and Ellie''s friendship. Because Ellie''s not used to being one-upped by anybody. There''s only one thing for Grace to do. With the help of Hank, the biggest button collector in the 6th grade, she''ll have to figure out a way to end the fad once and for all. But once a fad starts, can it be stopped? "A fun, charming story about fads and the friendships that outlast them."--Booklist "On-point."--Publishers Weekly

When Grace takes boxes of old buttons from a building her grandfather bought, she starts a fad at school that draws her closer to one friend, but further from another.

The beloved New York Times bestselling author of the modern classic Frindle celebrates books and the joy of reading with a new school story to love! Sixth grader Alec can’t put a good book down. So when Principal Vance lays down the law—pay attention in class, or else—Alec takes action. He can’t lose all his reading time, so he starts a club. A club he intends to be the only member of. After all, reading isn’t a team sport, and no one would want to join something called the Losers Club, right? But as more and more kids find their way to Alec’s club—including his ex-friend turned bully and the girl Alec is maybe starting to like—Alec notices something. Real life might be messier than his favorite books, but it’s just as interesting. With The Losers Club, Andrew Clements brings us a new school story that’s a love letter to books and to reading and that reminds us that sometimes the best stories are the ones that happen off the page—our own! Winner of the Rhode Island Children''s Book Award (2019) Winner of the International Reading Association and Children''s Book Council: Children''s Choices List (2018) Winner of the Garden State Children''s Book Award (2020) 2021 Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee A Kansas William White Master List Selection (2018 & 2019) An Arkansas Charlie May Simon Children''s Book Award Nominee (2019) A California Young Reader Medal Nominee (2019) A Nebraska Golden Sower Award Nominee (2019) A Virginia Young Readers Program Award Nominee (2019) A Minnesota Maud Heart Lovelace Award Nominee (2019) A Missouri Mark Twain Award Nominee (2019) An Oregon Reader’s Choice Award Nominee (2019) Praise for The Losers Club! * "Clements’s latest is engaging and funny. A laugh-out-loud first purchase for all middle grade collections, and a solid read-aloud choice for classrooms."—School Library Journal, Starred Review "Clements is out to celebrate reading in all its obsessiveness, and...tosses in shout-outs to a passel of other writers. [The Losers Club] gives fried bookworms everywhere the satisfaction of knowing that friends may desert them (if only temporarily) but books never will. "—The New York Times Praise for Andrew Clements! “Clements is a genius.” —The New York Times “We have never read an Andrew Clements book that we haven’t loved.” —The Washington Post

As every child knows, grandparents are special. Why? Because they love their grandchildren in their own unique way. Although the boy and girl in this story often make mistakes, their grandparents never lose patience, but help their grandchildren and cheer when they get things right. Lyrical, soothing words are paired with warm and humorous pictures in this tribute to the unconditional love every grandparent and grandchild share.

Sixth-grader Alton Barnes loves maps, and when his portfolio of secret maps is stolen, he begins getting notes with orders that he must obey to get the maps back but, with the help of a popular classmate, he just might succeed before his teacher, principal, or someone else learns he has been studying and mapping things about them.

As Benjamin Pratt and his friends Jill and Robert continue their efforts to save their school, they find themselves dodging two evil janitors, Lyman and Wally, but their team has also grown and now has a secret fund of millions of dollars.

Includes a reading group guide by author.

A tale in haiku of one adorable dog. Let’s find him a home. Wandering through the neighborhood in the early-morning hours, a stray pooch follows his nose to a back-porch door. After a bath and some table scraps from Mom, the dog meets three lovable kids. It’s all wags and wiggles until Dad has to decide if this stray pup can become the new family pet. Has Mooch finally found a home? Told entirely in haiku by master storyteller Andrew Clements, this delightful book is a clever fusion of poetry and puppy dog.

Beginning readers will love reading the true story of Ringo, the cat who alerted his owners of danger. This Level 1 Ready-to-Read is sure to be a hit with pet lovers! One day, Ringo the cat leads his owners outside. "Meow! Meow!" he says. Ringo digs in some rocks. Why is Ringo digging? What will he find? Ringo is about to save his owners'' lives!

Beginning readers will love reading about the true story of Tara and Tiree, two dogs who saved their owner''s life. This Level 2 Ready-to-Read is sure to be a hit with pet lovers! Jim loves to go for long walks with his dogs, Tara and Tiree. One cold winter day, Jim falls through the ice on the frozen lake. Tiree tries to save him and falls through the ice too. What will happen if Tara tries to help them both?

Time is almost out for the Keepers of the School in this fifth Keepers adventure from Andrew Clements, the master of the school story. The Keepers of the School—known to their friends as Ben, Jill, and Robert—have one last chance to save their school before it’s torn down to make room for a seaside amusement park. But their nemeses, Janitors Lyman and Wally, are just as determined to keep the kids out of the way and the demolition on schedule. One way or the other, this battle is about to come to a head. When all is said and done, will the school still be standing? Or will everything the Keepers have fought for be destroyed?

With a key to the Oakes School in his possession Benjamin, his friend Jill, and a new friend continue to seek ways to protect the school and their town but Lyman, the janitor and a spy, has new tricks up his sleeve.

When his older brother gets in serious trouble, sixth-grader Clay decides to change his own mischief-making ways, but he cannot seem to shake his reputation as a troublemaker.

NEW STUDENT GETS OLD TEACHER The bad news is that Cara Landry is the new kid at Denton Elementary School. The worse news is that her teacher, Mr. Larson, would rather read the paper and drink coffee than teach his students anything. So Cara decides to give Mr. Larson something else to read—her own newspaper, The Landry News. Before she knows it, the whole fifth-grade class is in on the project. But then the principal finds a copy of The Landry News, with unexpected results. Tomorrow’s headline: Will Cara’s newspaper cost Mr. Larson his job?

Knock, knock. Who''s there? Jake. Jake who? Jake Drake, Class Clown. Miss Bruce is the new student teacher in second grade, and she never smiles. Never. But when Jake cracks up the class during a spelling bee, he sees the tiniest hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Suddenly, Jake has a new mission in life: to be so funny that even Miss Bruce will laugh! But then things get out of hand, and Jake finds himself in big trouble. Has Jake discovered -- too late -- that not everybody loves a clown?

Jake''s desire to win the school science fair almost costs him his best friend. Jake Drake is excited about Despres Elementary School''s first science fair. He wants to win the grand prize: a brand-new Hyper-Cross-Functional Bluntium Twelve computer system. And he really wants to beat the third-grade know-it-alls, Marsha McCall and Kevin Young. The trouble is, to beat the know-it-alls, Jake has to become a know-it-all himself. And he may just lose more than he wins.

Jake recounts his second grade introduction to Link Baxter, SuperBully, who becomes his class project partner, with surprising results. When Jake was three years old at Miss Lulu''s Dainty Diaper Day Care Center, what did he know about bullies? Nothing. But he learned fast! Why? Because Jake was kind of smart and not a tattletale, and he had no big brother to protect him. He was a perfect bully magnet. But everything changed the year Jake was in second grade. That''s when SuperBully Link Baxter moved to town. Jake had his hands full just trying to survive, until class project time. Who did the teacher assign to be Link''s partner? You guessed it. Jake has to use all his smarts -- and his heart as well -- to turn himself from Jake Drake, Bully Magnet, to Jake Drake, Bully Buster.

The end of third grade turns into a disaster for Jake when he inadvertently becomes the teacher''s pet, and no matter how hard he tries, he can''t shake the image. Mrs. Snavin looked right past all those waving hands. She looked right at me and she smiled and said, "I think I''ll have Jake take it." Then Mrs. Snavin said, "but be sure to hurry right back, Jake, because we''re going to work on our number-line project, and you have to be my special computer helper, okay?" And I could feel every kid in the class looking at me. They weren''t saying anything. They weren''t even whispering. But right then, I heard what they were thinking anyway. They were thinking, teacher''s pet.

A moving holiday story from New York Times bestselling author Andrew Clements. For Hart Evans, being the most popular kid in sixth grade has its advantages. Kids look up to him, and all the teachers let him get away with anything -- all the teachers except the chorus director, Mr. Meinert. When Hart''s errant rubber band hits Mr. Meinert on the neck during chorus practice, it''s the last straw for the chorus director, who''s just learned he''s about to lose his job due to budget cuts. So he tells the class they can produce the big holiday concert on their own. Or not. It''s all up to them. And who gets elected to run the show? The popular Mr. Hart Evans. Hart soon discovers there''s a big difference between popularity and leadership, and to his surprise, discovers something else as well -- it''s really important to him that this be the best holiday concert ever, and even more important, that it not be the last.

Ordinarily, no one would have imagined that Jack Rankin would vandalize a desk. But this was not an ordinary school year for Jack.... When Jack Rankin learns that he is going to spend the fifth grade in the old high school -- the building where his father works as a janitor -- he dreads the start of school. Jack manages to get through the first month without the kids catching on. Then comes the disastrous day when one of his classmates loses his lunch all over the floor. John the janitor is called in to clean up, and he does the unthinkable -- he turns to Jack with a big smile and says, "Hi, son." Jack performs an act of revenge and gets himself into a sticky situation. His punishment is to assist the janitor after school for three weeks. The work is tedious, not to mention humiliating. But there is one perk, janitors have access to keys, keys to secret places....

Nora Rose Rowley is a genius, but don''t tell anyone. Nora''s managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she''s not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way. But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point. Suddenly the attention she''s successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her secret is out. And that''s when things start to get really complicated....

As two clever boys exploit a clerical oversight, each one discovers new perspectives on selfhood, friendship, and honesty. Identical twins Ray and Jay Grayson are moving to a new town. Again. But at least they’ll have each other’s company at their new school. Except, on the first day of sixth grade, Ray stays home sick, and Jay quickly discovers a major mistake: No one knows about his brother. Ray’s not on the attendance lists and doesn’t have a locker, or even a student folder. Jay decides that this lost information could be very…useful. And fun. Maybe even a little dangerous.

Meet Greg Kenton, billionaire in the making. Greg Kenton has two obsessions -- making money and his long-standing competition with his annoying neighbor, Maura Shaw. So when Greg discovers that Maura is cutting into his booming Chunky Comics business with her own original illustrated minibooks, he''s ready to declare war. The problem is, Greg has to admit that Maura''s books are good, and soon the longtime enemies become unlikely business partners. But their budding partnership is threatened when the principal bans the sale of their comics in school. Suddenly, the two former rivals find themselves united against an adversary tougher than they ever were to each other. Will their enterprise -- and their friendship -- prevail?

When a little boy and his mom go camping, mini-disasters abound, and there are lots of opportunities for Mom to step in and fix everything. But instead, with a loving touch, this mommy shows her child ways to do things for himself, going far to encourage her child’s independence. And there is still plenty of opportunity for snuggling under the stars. This warm and humorous testament to all the loving things a supportive mom does each day is every bit as heartwarming as its predecessor and is sure to become a favorite for families everywhere.

The first in a six-book series, We the Children follows Ben, his tech-savvy friend, Jill, and the class know-it-all, Robert, as they uncover a remarkable history and use it to protect the school. Sixth grader Benjamin Pratt loves history, which makes going to the historic Duncan Oakes School a pretty cool thing. But a wave of commercialization is hitting the area and his beloved school is slated to be torn down to make room for an entertainment park. This would be most kids’ dream—except there’s more to the developers than meets the eye… and more to the school. Because weeks before the wrecking ball is due to strike, Ben finds an old leather pouch that contains a parchment scroll with a note three students wrote in 1791. The students call themselves the Keepers of the School, and it turns out they’re not the only secret group to have existed at Duncan Oakes.

In No Talking, Andrew Clements portrays a battle of wills between some spunky kids and a creative teacher with the perfect pitch for elementary school life that made Frindle an instant classic. It’s boys vs. girls when the noisiest, most talkative, and most competitive fifth graders in history challenge one another to see who can go longer without talking. Teachers and school administrators are in an uproar, until an innovative teacher sees how the kids’ experiment can provide a terrific and unique lesson in communication.