The Misadventures of Max Crumbly

After years of being homeschooled by his grandmother, Max Crumbly starts at South Ridge Middle School anxious, awkward, and instantly targeted by the school bully, Doug "Thug" Thurston — who locks him in his own locker not once but twice. The first time, Max's crush Erin rescues him and the two hit it off; the second time, trapped for hours after school, Max discovers hidden passages in the building's neglected corners.

There, he stumbles onto a genuinely dangerous crime in progress — inept thieves stealing the school's computers — and, with Erin's help, ends up the reluctant hero of the day. Rachel Renée Russell's Wimpy Kid-style diary-format series opener mixes comic-strip humor with real anxiety about fitting in.