Sixth grader Alec can’t put a good book down.

So when Principal Vance lays down the law — pay attention in class, or else — Alec takes action. He can’t lose all his reading time, so he starts a club. A club he intends to be the only member of. After all, reading isn’t a team sport, and no one would want to join something called the Losers Club, right? But as more and more kids find their way to Alec’s club — including his ex-friend turned bully and the girl Alec is maybe starting to like — Alec notices something. Real life might be messier than his favorite books, but it’s just as interesting.

With The Losers Club, Andrew Clements brings us a new school story that’s a love letter to books and to reading and that reminds us that sometimes the best stories are the ones that happen off the page — our own!