Three Newbery Medal-winning authors have just published new books:

• Paul Fleischman won the 1989 Newbery Medal for his book "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices." Since then, he has written all kinds of different books, including picture books "Westlandia" and "Sidewalk Circus"; "Zap," a play for young adults; "Bull Run," a historical novel; and "Seedfolks," a novel about the creation of a community garden.

Fleischman's work defies easy categorization, and his newest book, "The Dunderheads," proves the point, as it is unlike anything he has written so far. Illustrated with comic panache by David Roberts, "The Dunderheads" is a small-sized picture book for elementary school-age readers.

"The Dunderheads," tells the hilarious story of how a group of kids triumphs over a tyrannical teacher, the aptly named Miss Breakbone. As the book opens, Miss Breakbone is doing what she does naturally -- shrieking at her class and calling them "fiddling, twiddling, time-squandering, mind-wandering, doodling, dozing, don't-know dunderheads!"

Miss Breakbone gives herself gold stars for making students cry, and she sells the items she confiscates from students; in fact, it was rumored that's how she made the money to purchase the electric chair for her classroom.

But, as the book's narrator, Einstein, makes clear, Miss Breakbone may be mean and tough, but she's not really very smart. As he puts it, she has "no eye for talent." Einstein, however, knows talent when he sees it and, together with his classmates, puts together a daring plan to use their unique skills to recover their confiscated items from Miss Breakbone's house.

Fleischman's story is, of course, wildly exaggerated, but that's what makes it so fun. Roberts' illustrations are pitch-perfect, further teasing out the book's natural humor. (Ages 7-10.)

• When author Susan Patron won the 2007 Newbery Medal for "The Higher Power of Lucky," the book was immediately engulfed in controversy because the word "scrotum" appears in the first chapter.

This ridiculous brouhaha unfortunately overshadowed the fact that Patron's book was a funny, touching and ultimately inspiring book about an orphan named Lucky who lives in the tiny California town of Hard Pan (population 43) and worries about who will become her guardian. As "Higher Power" ends, Lucky is about to be adopted by Brigitte, the French-born former girlfriend of her ne'er-do-well absentee father.

Patron now continues Lucky's story in "Lucky Breaks" (Atheneum, $16.99). At the book's opening, Lucky is thrilled to be turning 11, an age she thinks "sounds like a little tap dance or a drum roll ... not the thud of 10, but flouncy e-le-ven, with its sophisticated three syllables."

Growing up, however, has its challenges, as Lucky discovers when she makes a new friend, a girl named Paloma, and has to learn how to balance this new relationship with her long-term friendship with best friend Lincoln. It takes a crisis for Lucky to understand what's most important in her life. As in her first book about Lucky, Patron faithfully presents an honest portrait of her protagonist, showing Lucky's quirks as well as her good heart. Despite her obvious flaws, however, Lucky is definitely a girl you'd like to get to know better.

If you're an audio book fan, check out the CD version of "Lucky Breaks," wonderfully narrated by Cassandra Campbell (Listening Library, $28). (Ages 8-12.)

• Phyllis Reynolds Naylor won the 1992 Newbery Medal for "Shiloh," the dramatic tale of a boy's efforts to save an abused beagle. "Shiloh" and its sequels are just some of Naylor's 136 books, which include the "Boys vs. Girls" and the "Alice" series.

Naylor's compelling new novel, "Faith, Hope and Ivy June" (Delacorte, $16.99), is set in Kentucky, where seventh-grader Ivy June lives in Appalachia with her grandparents, just up the hill from the too-crowded home of her parents and siblings. The story revolves around what happens when Ivy June is chosen to take part in an exchange program with Catherine, a much wealthier girl who lives in the big city of Lexington.

Naylor eschews the sentimentality of the princess and the pauper routine, however, by making both Ivy June and Catherine very thoughtful, gutsy characters who are willing to try out lives far different than their own. After near tragedy strikes, both girls understand that they are more alike than different, especially when it comes to having a loving family.

Readers will particularly enjoy the way Naylor tells some of the story through the journals the girls are required to keep as a record of their exchange experience. This occasional switch from third-person to first-person narration helps readers gain insight into how each girl is feeling. (Ages 9-12.)