Channie Waites

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footsteps of the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but with a dysfunctional family (mother in jail, father withdrawn, drunken grandfather, gay cousin) the odds are against her--until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.

Every Tuesday Lola and her mother visit their local library to return and check out books, attend story readings, and share a special treat. On board pages. Every Tuesday Lola and her mother visit their local library to return and check out books, attend story readings, and share a special treat.

"While the other girls have always known they were destined to be witches, Hasani is a Wildseed---a stray witch from a family of non-witches, with no background knowledge, no way to control her magic, and a lot to catch up on. 'Wildseed' may be an insult that the other girls throw at her, but Wildseeds are more powerful than they know. And Hasani will learn that there are ways to use magic and thrive that can never be taught in a classroom"--

Now back at Riverbend Middle, social media loving tween Hasani tries to prove her former friend, and fellow witch, LaToya, is responsible for the recent chaos at school.

More than anything Lola would like a cat, but first she must learn how to care for it.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans.

"Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her mother, a physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie will go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie feels stifled by her mother's choices and is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother, Libertie has skin that is too dark. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be...

Sixteen-year-old Saskia Brown, an outsider at her new school, discovers that she can use liquid mercury to visit boys in daguerreotypes in her dreams, and soon classmates are doing the same, with terrible consequences.

"Nobody expected a tiny little virus to change the whole world in such a big way, especially not Shayla, Liam, Ai, and Ben. But when school closes to keep everyone safe, their lives turn upside down. It is one thing to learn that the outside world isn't safe, but why does it seem that the virus is causing trouble inside their homes too? As they each struggle to adjust to life in quarantine, they discover they are not alone: their apartment building...

Eleven-year-old Georgie is still adjusting to leaving Atlanta for a small town, having a stepfather, and being unable to get close to her stepsister when her six-year-old sister, Peaches, suddenly becomes very illustrations.