Bullying

"This is the 100 percent true story of the summer I - Wyatt Jones - was eleven and built a fort in the woods with my friend Augie Valerio. It isn't the story I handed in to my teacher about how I spent my summer vacation. See, there's stuff that happened that you can't really talk about in school. Not unless you want to get into trouble. Plus, there are things in here like dead squirrels. and squirrel guts. There are weapons, too: a slingshot, a pellet gun, and a pocketknife. I'm just warning you, in case that kind of stuff bothers you.

School has started, and Binny can't believe how terrible it is. She has a horrid hand-me-down uniform, and the kids make fun of her "posh" city accent.

Then a storm destroys the roof of Binny's house. Binny; her mother; her sensible older sister, Clem; and her rambunctious brother, James (and his chickens) are forced to move across town to a rental home at the end of a forbidding, unlit lane. Things only get worse when she calls their new landlady a "bossy old witchy woman" at school...in front of the landlady's daughter, Clare, who starts bullying Binny mercilessly.

Acclaimed and award-winning author Erin Entrada Kelly’s Hello, Universe is a funny and poignant neighborhood story about unexpected friendships.

Told from four intertwining points of view—two boys and two girls—the novel celebrates bravery, being different, and finding your inner bayani (hero). “Readers will be instantly engrossed in this relatable neighborhood adventure and its eclectic cast of misfits.”—Booklist

Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone know he can barely read or write. But those troubles don't compare with grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason's best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family's orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can't understand why Lieutenant Baird won't believe the story Mason has told about that day.