Roger's heard that "middle school isn't for wimps, " and that scares him! Since he's just eleven, mixed-race, short for his age, as well as new to the school, he's worried that the other kids might think he's just a wimp. Maybe they'd be right - maybe he is a wimp! It doesn't help one bit that two of the meanest bullies in the school single him out as their number one target. He also has the strictest teacher at school, and at home, he has to put up with his bratty kid sister. He hopes his new friends, Reeves Boggs (nicknamed Booger) and Theresa Montaigne, the new girl at school who has a secret, can help him survive the challenges of being in 6th grade - dealing with bullies, racial and transgender prejudices, and discovering who the "Halloween witch" who lives in his neighborhood really is. Together the three of them discover what it's like growing up and surviving middle school.