Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes. It doesn't...

Two middle-grade kids take a shortcut home from school and discover what looks like fuzzy mud but is actually a substance with the potential to wreak havoc on the entire world.

Unusual things continue to happen in the classroom on the thirtieth floor of Wayside School, which was accidentally built sideways with one classroom on each story.

Three years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is trying hard to keep his life on track, but when his old pal X-Ray shows up with a tempting plan to make some easy money scalping concert tickets, Armpit reluctantly goes along.

HAccidentally built sideways and standing thirty stories high (the builder said he was very sorry for the mistake), Wayside School has some of the wackiest classes in town, especially on the thirtieth floor. That's where you'll meet Bebe, the fastest draw in art class; John, who only reads upside down; Myron, the best class president, ever; and Sammy, the new kid-he's a real rat. -- from Amazon.

A small incident during recess threatens to turn nine-year-old Marvin into the outcast of his third-grade class. Marvin is shunned by his classmates, best friends, and teacher after he is unfairly fingered as a nose-picker by the class bully.

Two days after Marvin sees a glowing green thing like a flying birthday cake in the night sky, his third-grade class is joined by a mysterious new boy with peculiar behavior.

When Marvin Redpost's new friend Casey shares with him her magic crystal that can make wishes come true, things get out of control.

An unmanageable, but lovable, eleven-year-old misfit learns to believe in himself when he gets to know the new school counselor, who is a sort of misfit too.

Young Stanley Yelnats finds himself at Camp Green Lake, where digging a hole a day keeps the warden at bay and "builds character". An ancient family curse still dogs Stanley and he's thrown headlong into the adventure of his life. Stanley and his campmates will have to forge fast friendships to unearth the mystery of what's really going on in the desert.