Project X

Below the sign welcoming the new eighth-grade class to school is one that promises to leave no child unsuccessful and a handout that offers eight ways of being smart. For Edwin Hanratty, at times as hilarious as he is miserable, this is part of what makes junior high pretty much a relentless nightmare. And so, with Flake, his only friend, he contends with clique upon clique--the jocks who pummel them, the girls who ignore or taunt them--as well as the dogged and disconcerting attentions of a sixth-grader who's even more ferociously disaffected than they are. And while Edwin's parents work…