Deeply humiliated by the leader of the popular crowd on the second day of eighth grade, Olivia, who has lived with her grandmother since her mother left the family, plots her revenge using dog training techniques.

Middle schooler Charlie Joe is proud of his success at avoiding reading, but eventually his schemes go too far.

Big Nate Wright is president of P.S. 38, the after school cartooning club. When he doodles his observations in his cartoon notebook: "Mighty Jefferson Middle School always wins, " Nate decides it's time to go from zeroes to heroes! Will Nate crack under the pressure of the "Ultimate Snowdown"? Or lead P.S. 38 to its biggest victory ever?

Nervous about middle school because her family does not get her and her friends know exactly what they want to do, Abbie Wu searches for her own passion before discovering a knack for leadership when injustices in the cafeteria come to light.

The president of Kprshtskan is plotting to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School in Maryland in order to take over the United States government, but when Toby Harbinger, an ordinary student, makes up his mind finally to win the fair, the terrorists' plans go awry.

Greg Heffley tells about his summer vacation and his attempts to steer clear of trouble when he returns to middle school and tries to keep his older brother Rodrick from telling everyone about Greg's most humiliating experience of the summer.

"Rafe Khatchadorian takes his troublemaking ways across the pond and gets lost in London!"--

Twelve-year-olds Kate and Marylin, friends since preschool, draw further apart as Marylin becomes involved in student government and cheerleading, while Kate wants to play guitar and write songs, and both develop unlikely friendships with other girls and boys.

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.

Substitute middle-school history teacher Rush Revere takes his students back in time to eighteenth-century Boston to experience the start of the American Revolution as it happens.