During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

The whole Benton Bluff Junior High band is at band camp, and when things start to go missing everybody blames Zac, the class clown--but when Zac's saxophone disappears he suspects that it is someone in another group trying to sabotage Benton Bluff, and sets out to uncover the culprit.

When one of the other members of Benton Bluff Junior High band shows up with a shiny new trombone, Kori Neal's school-loaner suddenly seems beat-up and old so she comes up with an idea to organize a fund-raiser to buy new instruments--until advice from a famous local jazz musician gives her a clearer perspective on the issue.

In New York in 1971, Jamila and Josie are bused across Queens where they try to fit in at a new, integrated junior high school while their best friend, Francesca, tests the limits at a private school.