Valedictorian status or high test scores no longer open doors to the country’s top universities. And striking that subtle balance among academic achievement, extracurriculars and the dreaded college essay can be tricky. That’s why Oyster Bay High School on Long Island, whose diverse student body represents a range of cultures and socioeconomic levels, was lucky to have “guidance guru” Gwyeth Smith Jr., simply known as Smitty.

In Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges—and Find Themselves, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David L. Marcus follows Oyster Bay’s class of 2008 as it prepares for college admissions. Focusing on several of Smitty’s special “projects” for the year—including an African-American girl with an overloaded schedule and limited financial resources, a popular jock who can’t focus on school work with all of the chaos at home, a free-spirited artist and a would-be engineer with a helicopter mother—Marcus’ engaging and inspiring narration reveals the mounting challenges teens face today and the resiliency that often exceeds their years.

Although he once flunked out of college and passed through three campuses before earning his bachelor’s degree, Smitty knows after nearly four decades of counseling that the secret to admissions success is not seeing college as a destination, but the beginning of a journey. The encouragement he gives his seniors on finding the right college—look beyond status and pressure from home and into one’s own character and passions—is timeless advice. For any student scouting the same path, and parents who want to help rather than hinder the search, Acceptance offers an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at the college admissions process.

New from the hilarious author of Daddy Needs a Drink comes Tales from the Teachers’ Lounge, in which Robert Wilder again masterfully turns his first hand experience into a narrative that’s at once both humorous and moving. This time Wilder takes us into the wacky world of the classroom where a daily conflict takes place between lesson plans and the lessons of real life. There’s nothing in the policy manual… [about] what to do when you see your student sprawled over the hood of a Camero making out, he explains. Competing with television, movies and cell phones isn’t easy, and guiding today’s students through a maze of books, bullies and bomb threats is tricky business. Teachers should be more like midwives and less like drill sergeants, Wilder advises. From painful to poignant, these laughter-inducing classroom chronicles are sure to chalk up good grades with educators, parents and even students sneaking a peak into the teachers’ lounge. (Hey, if gets them to read, it can’t be bad.)

Pack light. That’s first-hand advice (and words to live by) from Mary Kay Shanley and Julia Johnston’s Survival Secrets of College Students. Even as you cram in more flip-flops and your iPhone, be sure to leave room for these time-saving, health-preserving new books they won’t take up much space and they could prove as indispensable as duct tape or alarm clock number two. Chapter titles in Survival Secrets (aside from What to Take or Not, ) include Orientation: You’re New, You’re Nervous and You Need It, Roommates; Friends, Foes, or Somewhere in Between and Love, Sex, Alcohol and Drugs. The advice ranges from the deadly serious Freshmen make up 24 percent of students enrolled in four-year institutions, but they account for 35 percent of student deaths, with almost one-third caused by alcohol or drug overdose to cheerful banter about getting up for early classes: Consider only 8 a.m. classes that are less than 10 minutes from your bed. Students from colleges across the country provide their personal stories and suggestions, like this tip from a senior, offering his angle on where to get the best free food: Girls’ rooms. They’re always full of snacks. The girls say, My parents sent all this food and I don’t want to eat it by myself.’ This handy guide will help the uninitiated handle everything from homesickness to heavy course loads, with the self-assurance of, well, maybe not a senior, but at least someone with a couple of semesters under his/her belt!

Sugarcane Academy begins as the tale of a one-room schoolhouse created to educate children who were forced to flee as Hurricane Katrina approached. But it evolves into a broader account of how residents of New Orleans struggled to find safety and stability after the storm disrupted, and in some cases destroyed, their lives. A handful of parents, including author Michael Tisserand, provided some stability for their children by opening the schoolhouse near a sugarcane field, which the students named Sugarcane Academy. The school became the eye of the storm, a place where children could continue to learn how to read and write, and also reflect on their experiences related to the hurricane. Taught by an innovative teacher named Paul Reynaud, the children share their fears of the recent past and their optimism for the future through discussions, journals and art projects.

A journalist by trade, author Tisserand goes in search of the experiences of other hurricane evacuees. His quest takes him to a temporary shelter inside a domed sports stadium, where families sleep on cots and eat bag lunches while trying to figure out where they will live next. He returns to New Orleans to examine the death and destruction experienced by the victims, including neighbors and close friends. And he finds others who were inspired to create schools like Sugarcane Academy to educate their children until the troubled New Orleans school system could reopen.

Through his personal account, the experiences of his two children and the stories of people he encounters, Tisserand is able to accomplish what the extensive news coverage could not: He puts a human face on the tragedy, allowing readers to better understand the experiences of the victims of Katrina. John T. Slania is a journalism professor at Loyola University in Chicago.

Oral Lee Brown’s story of perseverance and triumph goes far beyond being a heart-warming narrative. It is a sobering and revealing work that reaffirms the shopworn axiom that one person can make a difference. The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of First-Graders to College, co-written with journalist Caille Millner, spotlights Brown’s zeal to ensure that every student in an East Oakland, California, first-grade classroom has the chance for a college education and better future. A simple encounter in a corner store triggers this campaign when a young girl borrows a quarter and uses it to buy bread and bologna for her family.

Despite earning only $45,000 a year in 1987, Brown eventually sent 19 of the 23 students to college 12 years later. Having already overcome growing up impoverished in Mississippi during the segregation era, Brown is no stranger to beating the odds. She accomplishes her goal through a combination of strategic savings, savvy investments and juggling multiple jobs. She eventually creates the Oral Lee Brown Foundation and gathers donations from various people in the community. But Brown also endures pain and heartache while becoming a confidant, mentor and surrogate mother to the children known as “Brown’s babies.” The men in her life often prove unable or unwilling to understand or appreciate her efforts, and she’s sometimes disappointed or saddened by the children’s behavior. However, Brown also revels in their success, and she makes the same promise to three new classrooms of first-, fifth- and ninth-graders in 2001.

While not every child’s final story is a happy one, The Promise certainly offers a blueprint for people who see injustice and inequality, but feel powerless to challenge or change it. Oral Lee Brown is a true giant and heroic figure whose example reflects her unwillingness to accept the notion that environment and family background inevitably must cause some children to be overlooked and left behind. Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and several other publications.

For many teens, the transition to high school may seem like a matter of survival. With a title that captures their worries, Where Should I Sit at Lunch?: The Ultimate 24/7 Guide to Surviving the High School Years provides insight and answers to commonly asked questions, including those dealing with parents, friendship, dating and sex. With information on puberty and body image, test-taking, jobs, time management and preparing for life away from home, authors Harriet S. Mosatche and Karen Unger also answer questions teens may not have thought of or may be too inhibited to ask on their own.

While the topics covered may be hard-hitting, the authors maintain a light, conversational tone, using occasional humor ( Dozing in class doesn’t count as the nine hours of sleep you need ), quotes from teens who’ve been there, done that, tips from experts, and plenty of charts, checklists and quizzes. Their down-to-earth advice prepares teens to make wise decisions not only during high school, but throughout young adulthood.

Angela Leeper is an educational consultant and freelance writer in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

In a time when even superb SAT scores and valedictorian status don’t necessarily secure a spot at a top college, The Cooper Hill College Application Essay Bible offers useful insight into what students can do to make their applications stand out.

The Bible reprints essays from students who gained admission to their schools of choice, then analyzes the essays to show what the students did right. Divided into essay topics, from athletics to disability to ethnicity, the book advises students on producing something fresh that will distinguish their essay from the thousands of others flooding the admissions office mailboxes. The proof is in the pudding: these essays helped students get into Yale, MIT and many high-quality institutions in between. This book is an indispensable tool for students seeking to stand out from the crowd.

Amy Scribner writes from Olympia, Washington.

How many of us have said with a shrug, “I’m just not good at math”? Untrue, says mathematician John Mighton, who contends that anyone can succeed in math. In The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child, Mighton shares his methods for helping students overcome their inherent fear of numbers. Math, according to Mighton, is “simply a different way of perceiving nature.” Those who dread math might be relieved to hear that The Myth of Ability really does break down basic mathematical concepts into understandable components: a whole chapter on fractions begins by advising teachers to have their students count on one hand by twos, threes and fives. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to add, multiply or even convert improper fractions to mixed fractions.

With his simple yet effective method, Mighton helps take the fear out of what for many is a mystifying discipline.

Amy Scribner writes from Olympia, Washington.

Ron Clark begins The Excellent 11: Qualities Teachers and Parents Use to Motivate, Inspire, and Educate Childrenby recalling his most terrifying teacher, a science teacher of singular intensity. She came to school every day, even when back problems forced her to be carted into the classroom on a stretcher. She expected the same devotion from her pupils. Every school has these so-called “tough” teachers, and Clark contends they are the ones who make a difference. He should know he was named the Disney Teacher of the Year in 2001, and his first book, The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child (2003), became a best-selling phenomenon.

For his new book, Clark traveled to schools in virtually every state, observing teachers and generating a “wish list” of 11 qualities such as appreciation and creativity that parents and educators alike should possess in order to help children flourish. For example, he advises school administrators that one of their most important tasks is to shower teachers with much-deserved appreciation. Pay teachers what they’re worth, support them, ask for their feedback.

Clark’s chatty, anecdotal writing and common-sense advice yields a book that will help parents, teachers and administrators alike in their quest to boost student achievement.

Amy Scribner writes from Olympia, Washington.