Catalog Search Results
1) Monster
Author
Language
English
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Description
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.
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English
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Awesome YA Books by Black Authors
Formidable Females in YA
High School Project Lit Titles
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Formidable Females in YA
High School Project Lit Titles
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Description
Sixteen-year-old Bri hopes to become a great rapper, and after her first song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, she must decide whether to sell out or face eviction with her widowed mother.
3) Dear Martin
Author
Language
English
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High School Project Lit Titles
Project Lit - Full List
Short YA Fiction
YA Contemporary Fiction Classics
Project Lit - Full List
Short YA Fiction
YA Contemporary Fiction Classics
Description
"Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student, and always there to help a friend--but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then...
4) Harbor me
Author
Language
English
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Description
Everything changes when six kids are sent to a room in school by themselves with no adults to listen in. Dubbing it the ARTT room, A Room To Talk, they find themselves discussing things they never thought they could with anyone else, finding outlets for fears about parents, racial profiling, deportation scares, and ultimately their shared longing for a place to belong.
5) Dough boys
Author
Language
English
Description
Told in two voices, thirteen-year-old best friends Simp and Rollie play on a basketball team in their housing project, but Rollie dreams of being a drummer and Simp, to impress the gang leader, Coach Tez.
10) Serena says
Author
Language
English
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Description
Serena St. John loves being best friends with the outgoing JC. But when JC goes into the hospital for a kidney transplant, she comes out with a new best friend. Suddenly on her own, Serena flounders without JC and pours her time into her vlogs, hoping to be selected as class reporter. Even though she knows she's not as outspoken as JC, Serena gets better with practice and learns that she, too, has a voice.
11) Leaving Lymon
Author
Language
English
Description
Raised by his grandparents, first in Mississippi then in Wisconsin, ten-year-old Lymon moves to Chicago in 1945 to live with the mother he never knew, while yearning for his father.
12) Like Vanessa
Author
Language
English
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Description
It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but with a dysfunctional family (mother in jail, father withdrawn, drunken grandfather, gay cousin) the odds are against her--until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.
Author
Language
English
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Description
On her birthday, twelve-year-old aspiring baker Zoe Washington receives a letter from her biological father, who is in prison for murder, telling her he is actually innocent. Determined to discover the truth, Zoe tries to investigate herself, perform well in her baking internship, and achieve her dream of auditioning for the Food Network's Kids Bake Challenge.
15) Betty before X
Author
Language
English
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Description
Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.
16) Ophie's ghosts
Author
Language
English
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Description
After a white mob murders her father, twelve-year-old Ophelia Harrison is awakened by his ghost, who tells her to wake her mother and retreat to the woods. They comply, and escape before their home is burned to the ground by the same men. The pair move to Pittsburgh to live with relatives and take jobs at Daffodil Manor, the home of a wealthy white woman. There, Ophelia continues to see ghosts and learns she has a gift with helping them move on.
Author
Language
English
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Description
Ali lives in Bed-Stuy, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for guns and drugs, but he and his sister, Jazz, and their neighbors, Needles and Noodles, stay out of trouble until they go to the wrong party, where one gets badly hurt and another leaves with a target on his back.
19) Tears of a tiger
Author
Language
English
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Description
The night that changes everything in Andy's life begins as a great time. His basketball team wins a big game, and he and his best friend have some cold brews stashed in the car, just waiting for the rolling party to begin. Nothing anyone can say or do afterwards will convince Andy that what happens next isn't his fault.
Author
Language
English
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Description
"The Strong family is having a reunion in New Orleans, and twelve-year-old Tristan is supposed to be keeping an eye on his younger cousin Terrance when several things happen at once: he sees his archenemy, King Cotton, and a mysterious girl grabs his magic cellphone--her name is Seraphine, and she seems to know everything about Tristan and the god Anansi (currently inhabiting the cellphone), and she has a mission for Tristan, one that is going lead...