Kirsten and Walk, seventh-graders at an elite private school, alternate telling how race, wealth, weight, and other issues shape their relationships as they and other misfits stand up to a mean but influential classmate, even as they are uncovering a long-kept secret about themselves.

Evan goes from being a nobody to everyone's hero and a social media superstar after a chance encounter with Connor just before his suicide leads others to believe Evan was his only friend.

"It's a frenemy showdown and Nikki Maxwell has the worst luck. Of all the schools she could have been assigned to for the student exchange week program, she's stuck at North Hampton Hills, her arch nemesis MacKenzie Hollister's new school. Even worse, there might just be someone at NHH who can out-MacKenzie MacKenzie! At least Nikki can write about every moment of drama in her diary, so readers won't miss a moment of it. Can the queen of dorks survive...

Amelia McBride and her friends at Joe McCarthy Elementary School try to figure out how to be popular, or at least not to be unpopular.

In the journal her fifth-year teacher requires, Jillian records the ups and downs of her efforts to become popular as she hosts a class party, creates a school magazine, and tutors some socially misfit boys.

Giovanna rashly breaks up with her boyfriend Jesse when he refuses to help her twin brother with his campaign for Student Council president, but fixing her mistake may be more difficult for her than she realizes.

When scholarship student Nikki Maxwell, whose father is the school exterminator, decides to enter the talent show at her expensive private school, her nemesis MacKenzie threatens to reveal Nikki's status to the rest of the school.

Amy Flowers is starting seventh grade at a new school, the exclusive Allington Academy, but in order to fit in, she has to get on the right side of the League, the clique that controls the school, and its mean leader, Fiona.

"Skyler Hanson is a fashion expert. So when snooty Madison Gillette challenges her to transform a Mathlete into a dream date before the Valentine's Day Dance, Skyler takes the bet. But nerdy Nathan Stillman is a handful. He does everything his own way, from wearing science googles to playing drums in a misfit rock band. The more Skyler tries to change him, the more he changes her. Can she make over the mathlete? Or will Skyler become a fashion victim?"--p.[4]...

"Five tweens navigate the pandemic by attending an experimental virtual reality school"--