Antics ensue after Hank throws his report card into a meat grinder.

Ravi has just moved to the United States from India and has always been at the top of his class; Joe has lived in the same town his whole life and has learning problems--but when their lives intersect in the first week of fifth grade they are brought together by a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and the need to take control of their lives.

"More than thirty million people in the United States are dyslexic--a brain-based genetic trait, often labeled as a "learning disability" or "learning difference," that makes interpreting text and reading difficult. Yet even though children with dyslexia may have trouble reading, they don't have any problems learning; dyslexia has nothing to do with a lack of intellect. While other books tell you what dyslexia is, this book tells you what to do. Dyslexics'...

"Seventh-grader Joseph Friedman is friendless and puny, with ADD to boot. He spends most of his time avoiding the class bully and hiding out in the Resource Room. But the Resource Room teacher encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school cross country team, and he meets Heather, a new student who's tough and athletic and refuses to be pushed around by anybody"--

As he grieves his best friend Benny's death, Mason and his friend Calvin, who are targeted by the neighborhood bullies, create an underground haven for themselves, but when Calvin goes missing Mason finds himself in trouble.

The Boy Who Learned Upside Down is based on the story of a real boy named Alex who turned I cant! into I can!, and Shadow, the dog that loved him. School was hard for Alex. He had a learning challenge dyslexia that turned reading into an endless chase after runaway words and made it difficult to pay attention, focus and follow directions as if he were learning upside down. For youngsters like Alex, the struggle to read, to write, and to belong often...