Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.
With poems found within the text of George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, Crystal Simone Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page. These poems are visually stark, a gathering of gripping verses that unmasks a dialogue of tragic truths - the stories of lives taken unjustly and too soon. Bold and deeply affecting, Dark Testament is a remarkable reckoning with our present moment, a call to action, and a plea...
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
In the heart-pounding conclusion to the Wings of Ebony duology, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicole Yoon calls “bold, inventive, big-hearted and deeply perceptive,” Rue makes her final stand to reclaim her people’s stolen magic.Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the E...
Sixteen-year-old Tiffany Sly s psyche was seriously damaged by the death of her mom. Now, she s afraid just about anything and everything will lead to her imminent death. It doesn t help that she s being forced to leave Chicago behind to live with the biological father she s never met before. And that the day before she s set to leave for California, another man shows up at her door, claiming he could be her biological father too.
Miles Morales is just an average teenager. Dinner every Sunday with his parents, chilling out playing old-school video games with his best friend, Ganke, crushing on brainy, beautiful poet Alicia. He's even got a scholarship spot at the prestigious Brooklyn Visions Academy. Oh yeah, and he's Spider Man.
Diego is a 16 year-old boy with a problem. He loves his girlfriend, Roxy. And when they suddenly break up due to Diego's insecurity issues, the boy is crushed. How ever will he win Shorty back? On the trusty advice of his (crazy) best friend, Diego invents an alter ego known as Dr. Truelove. A sex and relationship e-columnist, Truelove is smooth where Diego is gawky, skilled where Diego is clueless. Truelove is, quite clearly, the way back into Roxy's heart. Or so it seems...
Twenty miles from Oakland, California, where fires have led to racial tension, multi-racial fifteen-year-old Nina faces the bigotry of long-time friends, her parents' divorce, and her brother's misbehavior, while learning of her great-great grandmother Sarah's escape from slavery.
“A love letter to Harlem and hope. I Rise is smart and funny and full of heart.*” Fourteen-year-old Ayo who has to decide whether to take on her mother’s activist role when her mom is shot by police. As she tries to find answers, Ayo looks to the wisdom of her ancestors and her Harlem community for guidance. Ayo's mother founded the biggest civil rights movement to hit New York City in decades. It’s called ‘See Us’ and it tackles police brutality and racial profiling in Harlem. Ayo has spent h...
In his first novel for young adults, Gary Soto paints a moving portrait of two sweet, ambitious Mexican American brothers who hope junior college will help them escape their heritage of tedious physical labor. Their struggles are humorous, true to life, and deeply affecting, and young adults will sympathize with them as they work through their problems and eventually come to terms with what is possible in an imperfect world. "Readers looking for a finely written, contemplative narrative will app...
As she tries to escape her poor Chicago neighborhood by winning a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, shy and studious eighth-grader Patrice discovers that she has more options in life than she previously realized.
The one and only Latina Smith is back on the block, and she’s come a long way from her freshman year at Cass High School. Where Latina once played back-up in a four member clique, she’s not only joined an entirely new crew, but she’s made her way to the forefront of the new clique that has taken Cass High School by storm. Latina and her girls Asia and Gena think they’re untouchable. They have it all: the looks, the brains, the boys, and thanks to Asia being spoiled rotten, they even roll in...
Michelle and her little siblings Cass and Denny are African-American and living on the poverty line in urban Baltimore, struggling to keep it together with their mum in jail and only Michelle's part-time job at the Taco Bell to sustain them. Leah and her stepbrother Tim are white and middle class from suburban Maryland, with few worries beyond winning lacrosse games and getting college applications in on time. Michelle and Leah only have one thing in common: Buck Devereaux, the biological father...
Kassidy Maddox enjoys being the center of attention, juggling three men until she meets a new one who wants her for himself, and Jacobi turns to Kassidy for advice when she meets a boy who seems too good to be true.
Phyllisia eventually recognizes that her own selfish pride rather than her mother's death and her father's tyrannical behavior created the gulf between her and her best friend.