Research shows that social isolation and bullying can profoundly affect students' sense of affiliation with school and thus hamper their ability to learn. In a survey of middle-grades students in three diverse schools, the authors found variations among the schools with regard to the extent to which students felt safe in school, the locations…

Although young adult literature is often recommended as a reading bridge to the classics, Stallworth insists that the genre deserves a prominent place in the middle school canon in its own right. She describes several examples from middle school classrooms of how young adult novels can enhance tweens' "life literacy" by both helping them develop…