Miles Darr and his friends in room 217 love band. And they love their director, Mr. Byrd. Colorful tropical shirts? Check. Sandals in winter? Check. High expectations? Double check. But lately, he's been distracted. And rumor has it, Byrd might be flying the nest. Can they convince him to stay? Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards.

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 her grandparents sign her up for the Benton Bluff Junior High band Tally Nguyen is horrified and worried about what the kids on her snowboarding team will think--but she comes to realize that she doesn't need to choose between the groups.

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.

The Benton Bluff Junior High band is one of a number of bands that will compete to perform for a chance to play for the governor, and two of the band members are fighting over who gets to be the soloist--Baylor Meece (clarinet) is not one of them, so can she come up with a plan to bring the band back into harmony?

"Eighth-grader Arthur Bean's life has taken a turn for the adventurous--two girlfriends to deal with, and a blockbuster film to co-write, produce and direct. How crazy can one school year get? Told through emails, doodles, texts, newspaper articles, and AV Club rules"--