MG Verse

Twelve-year-old Daylan hasn't gone swimming in years, not since he had a frightening encounter in El Naci river with Cihuamichin-a legendary water woman with the power to bring either safety or destruction to his small Mexican community. Daylan often has nightmares about Cihuamichin. At school, he's bullied for his fear of swimming and his social anxiety. When a new kid named Eliam starts at Daylan's school, Daylan is forced to confront feelings that he has about himself, and maybe even get in the water again. But Eliam becomes part of a troublesome crew, joining them as they break the water woman's rules. When they threaten the safety that Daylan and his town desperately need, Daylan must find a way to overcome his fear of the river-and take the plunge.

Is there a more exciting place to spend winter break than a haunted theme park? Thirteen-year-old Teddy's uncle hosts a paranormal TV show called Shiver Search. He lets his nephew tag along with the crew for a special shoot. Dreamer Mountain is a long-abandoned amusement park with rust-covered rides and snow-steeped carnival stands. Yet some say they hear sounds rising up from the site at night. When the crew enters, what they encounter proves more mind-melting than they ever expected. Teddy finds a force that seems to know his personal hopes and fears, something that can warp and transform space and time. Can he survive the cosmic power that has taken hold of Dreamer Mountain?

Giant eels have invaded the Jersey Shore town where 12-year-old Liam is spending the summer at Gramps's cottage. The eels chew up postcards in mailboxes, get into Mom's paints, and cause traffic accidents. No one knows why the eels are so enormous, or how to stop them from crawling everywhere. Some answers could lie in the journals Gramps left behind before he died last fall. Does it have to do with the local power plant? Will the stubborn town leaders listen to a couple of kids? Liam and his new friend Ceila set out to crack the mystery of the giant eels, but one wrong step could get them into a world of trouble.

Pearl has lived a secluded life with her father for as long as she can remember. Other than attending Badger Middle School, Pearl has very limited contact with the outside world. Her dad keeps her close by his side. Pearl is not allowed to attend sleepovers or parties and Dad has always taught her to be distrustful of adults. So when Dad doesn't come home one day and Pearl is left alone, she must decide: keep her life a secret and try to go it on her own? Or violate the "rule" and trust another adult to help? The school counselor, Ms. Sanchez, seems kind enough, but Pearl is still afraid. As circumstances at home force her hand, Pearl takes the leap. Together, child and counselor begin to peel back the layers of Pearl's past. Little do they know that it is Pearl herself who holds the greatest clue of all, buried in the depths of a recurring dream. A dream about a golden tree . . . and the story of King Midas.

Meadow is enjoying a carefree country summer, tending her beloved 4-H chickens and freely exploring the outdoors. Content at home with her father, brother, and Nanna, Meadow wishes she could stay a kid forever. Everything changes the day the man in the green car stops her on the road, alarming her with an uncomfortable request. The brief encounter fills her with a strange new anxiety that she can't share with anyone. As fear fills her every move, she makes her world smaller and smaller to feel safe. But when a friend is also approached by the driver of the green car, Meadow realizes she must talk about what happened to protect others. Like the jack pine growing from the rocky cliff, Meadow can't fight growing up any longer, but maybe she can change her corner of the world for the better.

Twelve-year-old Arlo doesn't want to stand in his big sister's shadow on the basketball court. He wants to do something different. Something he can call his own. A Ping-Pong master at home, Arlo decides to try his hand at the Olympic sport of table tennis. But he quickly learns it is a completely different game than the one he grew up playing in the basement. Also, he's not the only kid who takes Ping-Pong seriously. As Arlo enters the world of competitive table tennis, he finds himself challenged unlike ever before. Will Arlo give up when it gets hard or find a way to persevere against all odds?

Twins Adam and Adriana Carver couldn't be more different these days, but they are forced to spend time together on a family vacation in a remote New England village. Though the neighborhood looks charming, the locals are spacey and distant. They seem barely able to speak. Soon the twins' parents begin forgetting everyday things-the locations of keys and parked cars. This quickly escalates into something far more troubling. As the adults start losing their core memories, the twins must hunt down the nightmarish cause of this tragedy. But the monsters in this peaceful seaside community prove far darker and more threatening than anything they might have imagined.

Ace hates sharing a computer with his older sister, Nora. When Ace and Nora get into a fight over the computer, they're both grounded from using it. But Ace has a new idea he wants to work on-designing a magician character named Fabian who reminds him of learning magic tricks with his absent father. Ace sneaks onto his mom's top-secret work computer in the middle of the night. But when Ace saves the Fabian file, something strange happens. Fabian comes to life on the screen and starts deleting files. When Ace and Nora try to fix the issue, they're sucked into the computer world. Now the siblings have no choice but to work together before Fabian erases everything on the hard drive-including them.

Eleven-year-old Luca has always excelled in a black-and-white world. He plays video games every day after school and remembers everything he reads-which has always made schoolwork a breeze. But now that his school is having tryouts for a modified esports team, his unique ability to memorize patterns in video games might finally help him with the gray area of making friends. Luca's talent and drive quickly earn him the respect of his team, and friendships he didn't realize he was missing out on. Luca leads the team to the Regional Championships. He's ready to bring home the gold, until he spots one of his teammates cheating. Luca must decide between leading his team to victory, or turning his team in and losing the only friends he's ever had.