From the beloved author of Because of Mr. Terupt comes the sequel to The Perfect Score, about a lovable group of students at Lake View Middle School and the rewards and challenges of seventh grade. These students are in for a year of secrets, discoveries, and kid power! GAVIN finally joins the football team—a dream come true!—but Coach Holmes refuses to play him for reasons that also threaten to tear Gavin's family apart. When RANDI attends an elite gymnastics camp, she uncovers a startling family connection. SCOTT starts researching an article for the school newspaper and stumbles right into a hornet's nest of lies. With his loser older brother, Brian, out of the house, TREVOR's life is loads better—until he realizes that only he can save Brian from getting into deep trouble. NATALIE's top goals: (1) find out why Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Magenta no longer speak to each other—a mission shared by all the kids—and (2) teach a certain someone an important life skill without anyone knowing. It's tough keeping secrets. And tougher still to deal with the fallout when secrets spill out. Praise for THE PERFECT SECRET : ". . . the characters shine, the plots are engaging, and the issues are addressed in interesting ways that will provide readers with many perspectives and much to consider." -- Kirkus Reviews "Buyea has carved out a niche with sensitive and heartfelt stories. . . .tackling topics like racism, immigration, bullying, and family secrets, with a deft hand. Highly recommended for all middle-grade readers." -- Booklist Online Praise for THE PERFECT SCORE: "Readers will. . . enjoy watching the Recruits fight back against scholastic tyranny." -- The Bulletin "Kids will gobble it up because it is pure literary joy." -- HuffPost Rob Buyea taught third and fourth graders for six years; then he taught high school biology and coached wrestling for seven years. Currently, he is a full-time writer and lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughters. He is the author of The Perfect Score and The Perfect Star, companion novels to The Perfect Secret. His first novel, Because of Mr. Terupt, was selected as an E. B. White Read Aloud Honor Book and a Cybils Honor Book. It has also won seven state awards and was named to numerous state reading lists. Mr. Terupt Falls Again and Saving Mr. Terupt are companion novels to Because of Mr. Terupt. Visit him online at robbuyea.com and on Facebook, and follow @RobBuyea on Twitter. 1       The Recruits       Gavin   Meggie had this new picture book she kept asking me to read, and I hated it ’cause tucked away inside those pages was the worst sentence any writer person had ever written. The worst! It was the sentence-that-must-not-be-read. I kept trying to steer Meggie toward the other books Mom had bought for her at a yard sale, but she kept going back to the one about the big red dog. I didn’t mind Clifford or his girl owner, but if you asked me, there was more wrong with that one sentence than there was with us cheating on the Comprehensive Student Assessments last spring. This particular Clifford book was all about manners, saying things like “please” and “thank you.” I was good with that stuff, having been raised to know that holding the door for the old lady behind you was important. But the sentence I couldn’t read--especially out loud!--was the one that said He smiles when he loses.   I slammed that book shut after reading those words to Meggie the first time. “This is terrible!” I shouted. All the daydreaming and night dreaming I did about football never had me smiling after losing a game. I was gonna win, and if I didn’t, I sure as heck wasn’t gonna be happy about it.   “Gavvy, don’t,” Meggie whined. “Read it. Please.”   I huffed. “Fine,” I said. “As long as you know that what it says in there is wrong. You don’t need to smile after losing in order to be a good sport.”   “Okay,” she agreed. “Just read it.”   Meggie didn’t care, but that sentence bothered me every time she had me open the book. So I started changing the words to what they shoulda said, like Clifford shook hands with his opponent after losing the match, but he wasn’t smiling. Or Clifford hated losing, but he still shook hands after the contest. Meggie frowned when I made changes, so we finally agreed I would skip that part. The rest of the sentences about being a good sport--stuff like not boasting when you win--were good, so I was fine reading those pages.   When I told Dad about that terrible sentence and how wrong it was, he laughed. “I can tell you this,” I said. “In my book it’s gonna say, Gavin smiles when he wins. Gavin’s happy winning.”   “You know, it’s not just a seventh-grade football team you’re joinin’,” Dad reminded me. “It’s a seven-eight team, which means there might be an eighth grader already slotted for the quarterback position.”   “I know. But once the coach sees me outworking everybody else and gunslinging the ball, he’ll give me my shot, and that’s all I