Bedford Library: If You Like Smile...

"Max Plink's life is complicated. Her parents aren't getting along. The school bullies are relentless, and her own sister is the cruelest of them. Worst of all, her mouth is a mess. With a mismatched puzzle of a jaw, Max has a Class II malocclusion, otherwise known as a severe overbite. She already has braces, which means she lives on Advil and soft foods after each orthodontist appointment. But now Max has to wear painful (and totally awkward) orthodontic...

"After years of hard work, Mia Tang finally gets to go on vacation with her family--to China! A total dream come true. Mia can't wait to see all her cousins and grandparents again, especially her cousin Shen. As she roams around Beijing, witnessing some of the big changes China's going through, Mia thinks about the changes in her own life, like . . . 1. Lupe's taking classes at the high school! And Mia's own plans to be a big writer are . . . stuck....

"Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in the Calivista Motel and every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, she manages the front desk. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is...

Fifth-grader Penny writes a series of letters to her future sibling, including facts about their Oakland, California, home, questions about whether their moms will ever marry, and especially that he or she is loved.

"Sunny is the chillest dude on the Defenders, an elite middle school track team. Secretly though, Sunny thinks himself as a murderer because his mother died giving birth to him. And the way Sunny's dad treats him doesn't help; it seems the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad's eyes is win races. But Sunny has never liked running; he'd rather dance. So Coach helps Sunny discover a track event that encompasses the hard hits of hip-hop, the precision...

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team -- a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training....

"Rahul Kapoor is heading into seventh grade in a small town in Indiana. The start of middle school is making him feel increasingly anxious, so his favorite person in the whole world, his grandfather Bhai, gives him some well-meaning advice: Find one thing you're really good at. And become the BEST at it. Those four little words sear themselves into Rahul's brain. While he's not quite sure what that special thing is, he is convinced that once he finds...

Merci embarks on a seventh grade year shaped by high teacher expectations, a crush on a school-store co-worker, and a bossy classmate's plan for the annual Heart Ball.

Augusta writes letters to her younger sister, Louie, about life in middle school, from tackling a new school building to meeting new people like the assistant principal, the class pet, and the renegade.

Knowing very little English, eleven-year-old Jingwen feels like an alien when his family immigrates to Australia, but copes with loneliness and the loss of his father by baking elaborate cakes.