Twelve-year-old Shayla is new to junior high. Her elementary school didn’t have many black kids like her, but there are lots in junior high and they all seem to stick together. Shayla hangs out with Julia, a Chinese American, and … Continue reading
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Twelve-year-old Chris is a fish out of water when his family moves from Chicago to a remote part of Tanzania. His parents’ dream is to manage Kipepeo Tented Camps, a Safari Lodge, but despite the wild animals, or maybe because … Continue reading
Here I am sitting in front of my cabin at the Highlights Foundation. I was there attending the Whole Novel Retreat as the Nikki Grimes Artist-in-Residence. It was springtime in the Poconos with pretty birds … Continue reading
When twelve-year-old Candice Miller and her mom temporarily move into her grandmother’s house in Lambert, South Carolina, she begins an adventure that will not only change her life, but the welfare of an entire city. Candice’s grandmother left Lambert in … Continue reading
I am proud to announce that I am the 2019 recipient of the Nikki Grimes Artist in Residency Scholarship from the Highlights Foundation. To learn more, click on https://www.highlightsfoundation.org/12328/announcing-the-recipients-of-the-2019-artist-in-residency-and-visual-arts-scholarship/. Nikki Grimes is an awesome, award-winning poet and author of numerous … Continue reading
On Sunday, January 20th, it was my pleasure to meet with members of the Cultured Books Book Club at Cultured Books in St. Petersburg, Florida. After our discussion, the girls made activist cards highlighting issues from the civil rights movement, … Continue reading
Big changes are happening in Amina’s life. She just started middle school, and her uncle, Thaya Jaan, is visiting from Pakistan on an extended stay. Her parents are from Pakistan and her best friend, Soojin, is from Korea. They bonded … Continue reading
Midnight Without a Moon is the first of two books about thirteen-year-old Rose Lee Carter, an African American girl who lives with her sharecropper grandparents, brother, and cousin on a cotton plantation in rural Mississippi, 1955. Civil disobedience is … Continue reading
Octobia May likes to hang out in cemeteries and have conversations with the residents. She developed an affinity for the dead, after having died once herself during heart surgery. Octobia lives with her Aunt Shuma, who is determined not to … Continue reading
Mia Tang emigrated from China with her parents and lives in California. Her parents were professionals back in China, but they have to work long hours in low paying jobs when they move to America and they are very … Continue reading