Book cover for Jojo vs. Middle School by Joy McCullough and Veeda Bybee

Jojo vs. Middle School

2025 Released
192 Pages
1-2 Hours
Audiobook Unavailable
AladdinISBN 9781665950749

After having hilariously terrible first days of sixth grade, four girls vow to ride out the super highs and cringe-worthy lows of middle school together, no matter how awkward it gets, in this first book in the Team Awkward middle grade series.

Jojo has everything planned out for the perfect first day of middle school, down to her outfit and hairstyle. But when Mom, distracted by her new live-in boyfriend, Paul, forgets to wake Jojo up, she oversleeps and has to make do with leggings, a t-shirt, and her brother’s hoodie.

The day still goes okay until Jojo realizes that she has a hole in her leggings thanks to Purrito, the kitten Paul “gifted” her. Because Paul isn’t just Paul; he’s Mr. Meow, a mega-famous cat-fluencer. Nearly everything in Jojo’s life is now cat-themed—including the underwear that the hole in her leggings is now showcasing to the whole school!

Embarrassed and unable to show her face in the cafeteria, Jojo spends her lunch period in an abandoned locker room. But she isn’t the only one hiding to cope with some major awkwardness. Maybe, with friends by her side, middle school won’t be so bad after all.

Joy McCullough

Joy McCullough writes books and plays from her home in the Seattle area, where she lives with her husband and two children. She is the author of the middle grade novels Across the Pond, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Not Starring Zadie Louise, Code Red, Kestrel Takes Flight, and Basil & Dahlia, as well as the middle grade series Team Awkward and the picture books Harriet's Ruffled Feathers, Champ and Major: First Dogs, and The Story of a Book. Her debut novel Blood Water Paint was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist. Visit her at JoyMcCullough.com.

More by Joy McCullough

Veeda Bybee

Veeda Bybee is a former journalist who holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is a contributor to the YA anthology Rural Voices and MG anthology Calling the Moon. She has also written historical fiction chapter books Lily and the Great Quake and in partnership with the Smithsonian, Li On Angel Island. Veeda is the daughter of Asian immigrants and lives in Nevada with her family. 

More by Veeda Bybee

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