When petty thief Gilly, who lives with five younger brothers and sisters in a run-down boot, gets caught stealing, she is sentenced to three months at Fairy Tale Reform School, where all of the teachers are former villains, including the Big Bad Wolf, the Evil Queen, and Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother.

Gilly and her friends must prepare for a giant invasion after Jack plants magic beans, earning him a spot in Fairy Tale Reform School and reminding Gilly how good it feels to be bad.

Twelve-year-old Jonathan Grisby has been sent to the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys, a former lunatic asylum which is currently run by a sadist who enjoys punishing the boys and setting them against each other; but when a lightning strike kills all the adults the boys find themselves suddenly free--and trapped on Scar Island which seems to be sinking into the ocean.

Seventeen-year-old Luce, who is suspected of killing her boyfriend, is sent to a Savannah, Georgia, reform school where she meets two intriguing boys and learns the truth about the strange shadows that have always haunted her.

When timid Milton and his older, scofflaw sister Marlo die in a marshmallow bear explosion at Grizzly Mall, they are sent to Heck, an otherworldly reform school from which they are determined to escape.

Formerly dead Milton Fauster tries to save his older sister Marlo from "eternal darnation" when she is sent to another educational level of the Underworld reform school known as Heck.

Twelve-year-old Andy Greenwood and fellow students at the Reclamation School for Boys in the New Mexico desert face an infestation of giant, mutant ants.

"Hector has always worked hard and minded his own business. He wants to be captain of his school's chess team, go to college, and help his family make their way to a better life someday. Until Joey singles him out. Joey, whose older brother, Chavo, is head of the Discípulos gang, tells Hector that he's going to kill him: maybe not today, or tomorrow, but someday. And Hector, frozen with fear, does nothing. From that day forward, Hector's death hangs...

After her parents are jailed for a failed resistance movement, Malley is sent to reform school, where she plans some resistance of her own.

When Headmaster Farley's estranged sister takes over Splurch Academy, Cody and the other boys are pitted against their new classmates, the girls of Priscilla Prim Academy for Precious and Proper Young Ladies.