1028 Books Published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Based on Theresa Wilson’s (a.k.a. Theresa tha S.O.N.G.B.I.R.D.’s) beautiful, viral spoken word poem of the same name, You So Black is a picture book celebration of the richness, the nuance, and the joy of Blackness.

Black is everywhere, and in everything, and in everyone—in the night sky and the fertile soil below. It’s in familial connections and invention, in hands lifted in praise and voices lifted in protest, and in hearts wide open and filled with love. Black is good.

Accompanied by powerful yet tender illustrations by award-winning illustrator London Ladd, Theresa tha S.O.N.G.B.I.R.D. has adapted her poem, full of gorgeous lyricism and imagery, to show readers the love, joy, resilience, and universality in the beauty of Blackness.

From the Slutty Vegan herself, a collection of ninety-one delicious, guilt-free, plant-based recipes that you will love to indulge in from the comfort of your own home. When Pinky Cole opened her first Slutty Vegan food truck in 2018, she was inspired by her love of vegan comfort food. Now, after having expanded to restaurants, a bar, and a philanthropic organization, Cole is ready to bring her best recipes straight to you. With mouth-watering photographs and easy-to-follow instructions, Eat Plants, B*tch celebrates Cole’s belief that it’s fun and accessible to cook and enjoy irresistible vegan comfort food. From Avocado Egg Rolls to her Black Pea Cauliflower Po’?Boy or Oyster Mushroom Parm and everything in between, it won’t be long before you will also be declaring Cole’s timeless mantra: Eat Plants, B*tch!

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller!

The shadows have risen, and the line is law.

All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new:

A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion.

But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.

Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected.

When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death.

If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.

A deeply reported, “important, and infuriating” (The Guardian) look at the systemic racism inside the American financial services industry, from acclaimed New York Times finance reporter Emily Flitter.

In 2018, Emily Flitter received a tip that Morgan Stanley had fired a Black employee without cause. Flitter had been searching for a way to investigate the deep-rooted racism in the American financial industry, and that one tip lit the sparkplug for a three-year journey through the shocking yet normalized corruption in our financial institutions.

Examining local insurance agencies and corporate titans like JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, and Wells Fargo and reveals the practices that have kept the racial wealth gap practically as wide as it was during the Jim Crow era. Flitter exposes hiring and layoff policies designed to keep Black employees from advancing to high levels; racial profiling of customers in internal emails between bank tellers; major insurers refusing to pay Black policyholders' claims; and the systematic denial of funding to Black entrepreneurs. She also gives a voice to victims, from single mothers to professional athletes to employees themselves: people who were scammed, lied to, and defrauded by the systems they trusted with their money, and silenced when they attempted to speak out and seek reform.

Flitter connects the dots between data, history, legal scholarship, and powerful personal stories to provide a “must-read wake-up call” (Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, president of KNOWN Holdings) about what it means to bank while Black. As America continues to confront systemic racism and pave a path forward, The White Wall is an essential examination of one of its most caustic contributors.

As a little boy grows into a bigger boy, ready to take on the world, he first must have that very difficult conversation far too familiar to so many Black and Brown Americans in this gentle and ultimately hopeful picture book.

Jay’s most favorite things are hanging out with his pals, getting kisses from Grandma, riding in his dad’s cool car, and getting measured by his mom with pencil marks on the wall. But as those height marks inch upward, Grandpa warns Jay about being in too big a group with his friends, Grandma worries others won’t see him as quite so cute now that he’s older, and Dad has to tell Jay how to act if the police ever pull them over.

And Jay just wants to be a kid.

All Black and Brown kids get The Talk—the talk that could mean the difference between life and death in a racist world. Told in an age-appropriate fashion, with a perfect pause for parents to insert their own discussions with their children to accompany prompting illustrations, The Talk is a gently honest and sensitive starting point for this far-too-necessary conversation, for Black children, Brown children, and for ALL children. Because you can’t make change without knowing what needs changing.

The author of the “brazenly hilarious, tell-it-like-it-is first novel” (Oprah Daily) Queenie returns with another witty and insightful novel about the power of family—even when they seem like strangers.

If you could choose your family…you wouldn’t choose the Penningtons.

Dimple Pennington knows of her half siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about.

She’s thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie, and Prynce crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

From an author with “a flair for storytelling that appears effortlessly authentic” (Time), People Person is a vibrant and charming celebration of discovering family as an adult.

This “exuberant celebration of Black women’s joy as well as their achievements” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author) novelizes the life of real estate magnate Josephine N. Leary in a previously untold story of passion, perseverance, and building a legacy after emancipation in North Carolina.

Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina, from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married, and ready to follow her dreams.

As the demands of life pull Josephine’s attention away, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to pursue her real estate aspirations. She finds herself immersed in deepening her marriage, mothering her daughters, and being a dutiful daughter and granddaughter. Still, she manages to teach herself to be a businesswoman, to manage her finances, and to make smart investments in the local real estate market. But with each passing year, it grows more and more difficult to focus on building her legacy from the ground up.

“Filled with passion and perseverance, Josephine Leary is frankly a woman that everyone should know” (Sadeqa Johnson, author of Yellow Wife) and her story speaks to the part of us that dares to dream bigger, tear down whatever stands in our way, and build something better for the loved ones we leave behind.

From a superb new literary talent, a rich, lyrical collection of stories about a tight-knit cast of characters grappling with their own personal challenges while the forces of gentrification threaten to upend life as they know it.

At Banneker Terrace, everybody knows everybody, or at least knows of them. Longtime tenants’ lives are entangled together in the ups and downs of the day-to-day, for better or for worse. The neighbors in the unit next door are friends or family, childhood rivals or enterprising business partners. In other words, Harlem is home. But the rent is due, and the clock of gentrification—never far from anyone’s mind—is ticking louder now than ever.

In eight interconnected stories, Sidik Fofana conjures a residential community under pressure. There is Swan, in apartment 6B, whose excitement about his friend’s release from prison jeopardizes the life he’s been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, waitressing at Roscoe’s and doing hair on the side. And Quanneisha B. Miles, in apartment 21J, is a former gymnast with a good education who wishes she could leave Banneker for good, but can’t seem to escape the building’s gravitational pull. We root for the tight-knit cast of characters as they weave in and out of one another’s narratives, working to escape their pasts and blaze new paths forward for themselves and the people they love. All the while we brace, as they do, for the challenges of a rapidly shifting future.

In this “captivating” (Harper’s Bazaar) and lyrical debut novel—perfect for fans of The Water Dancer and the Legacy of Orïsha series—the Yoruba deity of the sea, Yemaya, is brought to vivid life as she discovers the power of Black resilience, love, and feminine strength in antebellum America.

Shallow Waters imagines Yemaya, an Orïsha—a deity in the religion of Africa’s Yoruba people—cast into mid-1800s America. We meet Yemaya as a young woman, still in the care of her mother and not yet fully aware of the spectacular power she possesses to protect herself and those she holds dear.

The journey laid out in Shallow Waters sees Yemaya confront the greatest evils of this era; transcend time and place in search of Obatala, a man who sacrifices his own freedom for the chance at hers; and grow into the powerful woman she was destined to become. We travel alongside Yemaya from her native Africa and on to the “New World,” with vivid pictures of life for those left on the outskirts of power in the nascent Americas.

Yemaya realizes the fighter within, travels the Underground Railroad in search of the mysterious stranger Obatala, and crosses paths with icons of our history on the road to freedom. Shallow Waters is a “riveting and heartbreaking” (Publishers Weekly) work of ritual storytelling from promising debut author Anita Kopacz.

Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Ice-T unveils a compelling memoir of his early life robbing jewelry stores until he found fame and fortune—while a handful of bad choices sent his former crime partner down an incredibly different path.

Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s, earning acclaim for his music before going on to enthrall television audiences as Odafin "Fin" Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it could have gone much differently.

In this "poignant and powerful" (Library Journal, starred review) memoir, Ice-T and Spike, his former crime partner—collaborating with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century—relate the shocking stories of their shared pasts, and how just a handful of decisions led to their incredibly different lives. Both grew up in violent, gang-controlled Los Angeles neighborhoods and worked together to orchestrate a series of jewelry heists.

But while Ice-T was discovered rapping in a club and got his first record deal, Spike was caught for a jewelry robbery and did three years in prison. As his music career began to take off, Ice made the decision to abandon the criminal life; Spike continued to plan increasingly ingenious and risky jewel heists. And in 1992, after one of Spike’s robberies ended tragically, he was sentenced to thirty-five years to life. While he sat behind bars, he watched his former partner rise to fame in music, movies, and television.

"Propulsive" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), timely, and thoughtful, two men with two very different lives reveal how their paths might have very well been reversed if they made different choices. All it took was a split decision.

A stunning visual autobiography of two crazy-talented besties, bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds and painter Jason Griffin, who could never be who they are singularly if they weren’t who they were together.

Once upon a time in America, there were two Jasons. Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin. One a poet. One an artist. One Black. One white. Two voices. One journey in mind: to move to New York, the city of dreams, to make their own dreams come true. Willing to have a life not un-hard, so long as it wasn’t unhappy. Willing to let the city swallow them whole, so long as it gives them their chance. They had each other. “What if painting was a sin, and the poetry became taboo. And no one ever clapped for me again. My question is, would you?”

They clapped. Oh, they clapped. And aren’t we glad?

A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour de force that tells the "powerful" (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall’s efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record.

Women warriors planned and led revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. And then they were erased from history. Wake tells the "riveting" (Angela Y. Davis) story of Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain’s logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the "negro burying ground" uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere.

Using a "remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection" (NPR), Rebecca constructs the likely pasts of Adono and Alele, women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York. We also follow Rebecca’s own story as the legacy of slavery shapes her life, both during her time as a successful attorney and later as a historian seeking the past that haunts her. Illustrated beautifully in black and white, Wake will take its place alongside classics of the graphic novel genre, like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Art Spiegelman’s Maus. This story of a personal and national legacy is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone, we still live in its wake.

Dear Martin meets They Both Die at the End in this gripping, evocative novel about a Black teen who has the power to see into the future, whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death, from the acclaimed author of SLAY.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus is trying his best. He tries to be the best employee he can be at the local ice cream shop; the best boyfriend he can be to his amazing girlfriend, Talia; the best protector he can be over his little brother, Isaiah. But as much as Alex tries, he often comes up short.

It’s hard to for him to be present when every time he touches an object or person, Alex sees into its future. When he touches a scoop, he has a vision of him using it to scoop ice cream. When he touches his car, he sees it years from now, totaled and underwater. When he touches Talia, he sees them at the precipice of breaking up, and that terrifies him. Alex feels these visions are a curse, distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live an ordinary life.

And when Alex touches a photo that gives him a vision of his brother’s imminent death, everything changes.

With Alex now in a race against time, death, and circumstances, he and Isaiah must grapple with their past, their future, and what it means to be a young Black man in America in the present.

Black Panther meets X-Men in this "fast-paced, action-packed, and empowering" (A. F. Steadman, New York Times bestselling author of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief) middle grade adventure about a British Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers—perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers, The Marvellers, and Rick Riordan!

Onyeka has a lot of hair—the kind that makes strangers stop in the street and her peers whisper behind her back. At least she has Cheyenne, her best friend, who couldn’t care less what other people think. Still, Onyeka has always felt insecure about her vibrant curls…until the day Cheyenne almost drowns and Onyeka’s hair takes on a life of its own, inexplicably pulling Cheyenne from the water.

At home, Onyeka’s mother tells her the shocking truth: Onyeka’s psychokinetic powers make her a Solari, one of a secret group of people with superpowers unique to Nigeria. Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies…

In this sweeping, foundational work, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Hackett Fischer draws on extensive research to show how enslaved Africans and their descendants enlarged American ideas of freedom in varying ways in different regions of the early United States.

African Founders explores the little-known history of how enslaved people from different regions of Africa interacted with colonists of European origins to create new regional cultures in the colonial United States. The Africans brought with them linguistic skills, novel techniques of animal husbandry and farming, and generations-old ethical principles, among other attributes. This startling history reveals how much our country was shaped by these African influences in its early years, producing a new, distinctly American culture.

Drawing on decades of research, some of it in western Africa, Fischer recreates the diverse regional life that shaped the early American republic. He shows that there were varieties of slavery in America and varieties of new American culture, from Puritan New England to Dutch New York, Quaker Pennsylvania, cavalier Virginia, coastal Carolina, and Louisiana and Texas.

This landmark work of history will transform our understanding of America’s origins.

Hitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this witty and romantic teen novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can get a girl who hates all things romance to fall in love with him in only three dates.Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted. Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners. Until he meets Dani Ford.

Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago. And that’s one thing Dani can’t do.

When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for.

Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever.

A New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and “one of our greatest living writers” (Shondaland) reimagines the love story in this fresh and seductive novel about a young woman seeking joy while healing from loss.Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again. It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career. She’s even started dating the perfect guy, but their new relationship might be sabotaged before it has a chance by overwhelming desire Feyi feels every time she locks eyes with the one person in the house who is most definitely off-limits—his father. This new life she asked for just got a lot more complicated, and Feyi must begin her search for real answers. Who is she ready to become? Can she release her past and honor her grief while still embracing her future? And, of course, there’s the biggest question of all—how far is she willing to go for a second chance at love?? Akwaeke Emezi’s vivid and passionate writing takes us deep into a world of possibility and healing, and the constant bravery of choosing love against all odds.

A riveting exploration of how the power of visual media over the last few years has shifted the narrative on race and reignited the push towards justice by the author of the “worthy and necessary” (The New York Times) Nobody Marc Lamont Hill and the bestselling author and acclaimed journalist Todd Brewster.

With his signature “clear and courageous” (Cornel West) voice Marc Lamont Hill and New York Times bestselling author Todd Brewster weave four recent pivotal moments in America’s racial divide into their disturbing historical context—starting with the killing of George Floyd—Seen and Unseen reveals the connections between our current news headlines and social media feeds and the country’s long struggle against racism.

For most of American history, our media has reinforced and promoted racism. But with the immediacy of modern technology—the ubiquity of smartphones, social media, and the internet—that long history is now in flux. From the teenager who caught George Floyd’s killing on camera to the citizens who held prosecutors accountable for properly investigating the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, ordinary people are now able to reveal injustice in a more immediate way. As broad movements to overhaul policing, housing, and schooling gain new vitality, Seen and Unseen demonstrates that change starts with the raw evidence of those recording history on the front lines.

In the vein of The New Jim Crow and Caste, Seen and Unseen incisively explores what connects our moment to the history of race in America but also what makes today different from the civil rights movements of the past and what it will ultimately take to push social justice forward.

Forget the aesthetics of mainstream minimalism and discover a life of authenticity and intention with this “warm, engaging guide” (Laura Fenton, author of The Little Book of Small Living) to living with less…your way.

When Christine Platt set out on her journey to live with less, she never intended to become The Afrominimalist. She just wanted to tame the chaos in her closet! But after struggling with the austerity and whiteness of mainstream minimalism, Christine realized why minimalism often seems unattainable for so many: the emphasis on all-white, barren aesthetics distracts from the practice of living with intention. And so, she decided to do things her way by curating a life of less influenced by the African Diaspora.

In The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living With Less, Christine gets right to the heart of how childhood experiences and expectations manifest in adulthood, the delicate dance between needs and wants, and the complicated weight of familial and societal pressures. A far cry from Konmaried closets, capsule wardrobes, and conspicuous consumption, Christine’s brand of “living with less” is more than a decluttering regimen. “By detailing her own maximalist-to-minimalist transformation, Platt puts readers at ease” (The Washington Post) and presents a radical revisioning of minimalism, one that celebrates the importance of history and heritage, and gives you permission to make space for what really matters…your way.

Beautifully illustrated with original black-and-white prints and line drawings, The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living With Less is a testament to the idea that anyone can be a minimalist and a warm invitation to a life curated with intention, perfect for readers of Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus (The Minimalists), Marie Kondo, Joshua Becker, and Courtney Carver.

From the bestselling author of 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, an exciting new keto-cleanse that delivers rapid weight loss with low-sugar smoothies and hearty low-carb meals.

The 14 Day New Keto Cleanse combines the health benefits of green smoothies with the fat-burning benefits of keto for maximum weight loss. The green smoothies that JJ is famous for get a low-sugar revamp, with new recipes featuring 15g or fewer net carbs and tasty ingredients such as chocolate, berries, avocado, and much more.

Nearly a million people are living their best and healthiest lives with the help of JJ’s cleanses that have proven results. This book contains everything you need to change your life in fourteen days, with comprehensive shopping lists, daily meal and movement guides, and plenty of opportunities to customize the plan. Featuring thirty-five easy recipes ranging from Turkey Pumpkin Chili to Pepperoni Parmesan Crisps, you can feel full and satisfied each day! Each recipe is low-sugar, low-carb, and packed with nutrient-rich ingredients that taste great. In just fourteen days, you can kickstart your body into a healthy state of fat-burning ketosis, experience quick weight loss, and lay the foundation for a longer, healthier life!

From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and writer Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker’s fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades as an artist, human rights and women’s activist, and intellectual.

For the first time, the edited journals of Alice Walker are gathered together to reflect the complex, passionate, talented, and acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner of The Color Purple. She intimately explores her thoughts and feelings as a woman, a writer, an African-American, a wife, a daughter, a mother, a lover, a sister, a friend, a citizen of the world.

In an unvarnished and singular voice, she explores an astonishing array of events: marching in Mississippi with other foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.; her marriage to a Jewish lawyer, defying laws that barred interracial marriage in the 1960s South; an early miscarriage; writing her first novel; the trials and triumphs of the Women’s Movement; erotic encounters and enduring relationships; the ancestral visits that led her to write The Color Purple; winning the Pulitzer Prize; being admired and maligned, sometimes in equal measure, for her work and her activism; and burying her mother. A powerful blend of Walker’s personal life with political events, this revealing collection offers rare insight into a literary legend.

A little boy who loves storytelling but struggles with writing learns that it’s okay to make mistakes in this charming and encouraging picture book from the author of Mommy’s Khimar.

Abdul loves to tell stories. But writing them down is hard. His letters refuse to stay straight and face the right way. And despite all his attempts, his papers often wind up with more eraser smudges than actual words. Abdul decides his stories just aren’t meant to be written down…until a special visitor comes to class and shows Abdul that even the best writers—and superheroes—make mistakes.

A searing and fearless anthology of essays exploring the profound impact of money on women’s lives, edited by prominent feminist and writer Rebecca Walker.Women Talk Money is a groundbreaking collection that lifts the veil on what women talk about when they talk about money; it unflinchingly recounts the power of money to impact health, define relationships, and shape identity. The collection includes previously unpublished essays by trailblazing writers, activists, and models, such as Alice Walker, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Rachel Cargle, Tracy McMillan, Cameron Russell, Sonya Renee Taylor, Adrienne Maree Brown, and more, with Rebecca Walker as editor. In this provocative anthology, we discover a family that worships money even as it tears them apart; we read about the “financial death sentence” a transgender woman must confront to live as herself. We trace the journey of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who finally makes enough money to discover her spiritual impoverishment; we follow a stressful email exchange between an unsympathetic university financial officer and a desperate family who can’t afford to pay their daughter’s tuition, and more. This collection is a clarion call to conduct honest conversations that demystify and transform the role money plays in our lives. Dazzlingly resonant and deeply familiar, Women Talk Money is a revelation.

In this incandescently fun, hijinks-filled picture book, a young girl schemes to keep the sun up in the sky so she never has to go to bed.

If Stella had her way, she would stop sleeping on her sixth birthday. Because sleep is boring. And there are so many better things you could be doing. And Stella is tired of being tired. So she comes up with a plan. People only have to go to bed when it gets dark, and it only gets dark because the sun goes down. If she can keep the sun in the sky, she and her best friend, Roger, can stay up for a hundred years!

They enact their magnificent, wonderful, genius plan, offering the sun a cup of coffee, shining a light at it so it will shine back, and jumping on a trampoline to reach the sun and push it higher. But before long, Stella begins to wonder…are there downsides to keeping the sun up forever?

A timely collection of deeply personal, uplifting, and powerful essays that celebrate the redemptive strength of Black joy—in the vein of Black Girls Rock, You Are Your Best Thing, and I Really Needed This Today.

When Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts wrote an essay on Black joy for The Washington Post, she had no idea just how deeply it would resonate. But the outpouring of responses affirmed her own lived experience: that Black joy is not just a weapon of resistance, it is a tool for resilience.

With this book, Tracey aims to gift her community with a collection of lyrical essays about the way joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma, in her own life. Detailing these instances of joy in the context of Black culture allows us to recognize the power of Black joy as a resource to draw upon, and to challenge the one-note narratives of Black life as solely comprised of trauma and hardship.

Black Joy is a collection that will recharge you. It is the kind of book that is passed between friends and offers both challenge and comfort at the end of a long day. It is an answer for anyone who needs confirmation that they are not alone and a brave place to quiet their mind and heal their soul.

“Black Joy is a glorious gift to Black folks. Intimate, engrossing, and deeply resonant, Lewis-Giggetts’ essays form a loving blueprint for healing and nourishing our minds and our spirits. An essential read for all of us who are trying to get free.” —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Finalist, National Book Awards 2020 for Fiction

“Black Joy is a necessary testimony on the magic and beauty of our capacity to live and love fully and out loud.” —Kerry Washington

“Evocative, honest and beautifully written, Black Joy is a balm to the soul.” —Bernice L. McFadden, author of Sugar

Jason Reynolds’s Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel Long Way Down is now a gripping, galvanizing graphic novel, with haunting artwork by Danica Novgorodoff.

Will’s older brother, Shawn, has been shot.
Dead.
Will feels a sadness so great, he can’t explain it. But in his neighborhood, there are THE RULES:

1. Crying.
   Don’t.
   No matter what.
2. Snitching
   Don’t.
   No matter what.
3. Revenge
   Do.
   No matter what.

But bullets miss. You can get the wrong guy. And there’s always someone else who knows to follow the rules…

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A firsthand, eye-opening story of a prosecutor that exposes the devastating criminal punishment system. Laura Coates bleeds for justice on the page.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award�winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an AntiracistWhen Laura Coates joined the Department of Justice as a prosecutor, she wanted to advocate for the most vulnerable among us. But she quickly realized that even with the best intentions, “the pursuit of justice creates injustice.” Through Coates’s experiences, we see that no matter how fair you try to fight, being Black, a woman, and a mother are identities often at odds in the justice system. She and her colleagues face seemingly impossible situations as they teeter between what is right and what is just. On the front lines of our legal system, Coates saw how Black communities are policed differently; Black cases are prosecuted differently; Black defendants are judged differently. How the court system seems to be the one place where minorities are overrepresented, an unrelenting parade of Black and Brown defendants in numbers that belie their percentage in the population and overfill American prisons. She also witnessed how others in the system either abused power or were abused by it—for example, when an undocumented witness was arrested by ICE, when a white colleague taught Coates how to unfairly interrogate a young Black defendant, or when a judge victim-blamed a young sexual assault survivor based on her courtroom attire. Through these revelatory and captivating scenes from the courtroom, Laura Coates explores the tension between the idealism of the law and the reality of working within the parameters of our flawed legal system, exposing the chasm between what is right and what is lawful.

The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century.

They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors’ tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals all their own.

In a world that would be allegorical if it weren’t saturated in harsh truths, Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation’s quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. It’s that cruel practice—the wanton destruction of love, the belief that Black people aren’t even capable of loving—that hurts the most.

It hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends, including William, who is like a brother; Margaret; Little Zander; and Milton, a gifted artist. There is also Pandora, with thick braids and long limbs, whose beauty calls to him.

Their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence. He tells them that with freedom comes the right to choose the small things—when to dine, when to begin and end work—as well as the big things, such as whom and how to love. Do they follow the preacher and pursue the unknown? Confined in a landscape marked by deceit and uncertainty, who can they trust?

In an elegant work of monumental imagination that will reorient how we think of the legacy of America’s shameful past, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful, and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love?

Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds.

Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin had a mind-meld. And they decided to tackle it, in one fell swoop, in about ten sentences, and 300 pages of art, this piece, this contemplation-manifesto-fierce-vulnerable-gorgeous-terrifying-WhatIsWrongWithHumans-hope-filled-hopeful-searing-Eye-Poppingly-Illustrated-tender-heartbreaking-how-The-HECK-did-They-Come-UP-with-This project about oxygen. And all of the symbolism attached to that word, especially NOW.

And so for anyone who didn’t really know what it means to not be able to breathe, REALLY breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you’ll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is.

In the “thrilling…masterful” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) 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 East Row. And girls from East Row don’t give up. Girls from East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from East Row break themselves out.

But getting free and finding her friends is only half the battle. Rue vows that when she reunites with them, she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit; with half a foot back in Houston and a heart that is half human, half god, she’s not sure she’s the right person to lead the fight to reclaim a glorious past.

When a betrayal sends her into a tailspin, Rue must decide who to trust and how to be the leader that her people deserve, because if she doesn’t, it isn’t just Yiyo that will be destroyed—it will be Rue herself.

Pure joy and the power of community radiate from this sweet picture book about a young Black girl’s perseverance and confidence in following her double Dutch dreams.

Africa’s grandmother was a double Dutch legend, and Africa knows she can become the same. Her brother scoffs when she signs up for a double Dutch competition, though—how can she hope to compete when she’s never done it before? But Africa has all the tools she needs: memories of her grandmother, her bestie Bianca’s dance moves, her friend Omar’s rhythm, and her classmates’ Mary Mack timing and cartwheels.

If Africa can pull everything together to jump some winning moves, she might just fly, but it’s the birthmark in the shape of her name that tells her she’s always been a winner.

From the acclaimed author of Red Island House, Andrea Lee’s brilliant, outrageous collection of short stories confronts identity, desire, colliding cultures, and self-discovery.

In vivid prose infused with wicked irony, award-winning author Andrea Lee takes us on a dazzling international journey into the hearts and minds of a number of extraordinary women—intelligent, cosmopolitan, and fiercely independent—who, with wit and style, grapple with questions of identity in an increasingly connected world where everyone has become, in some way, a foreigner.

In “The Birthday Present,” a seemingly conventional American wife explores the wilder shores of marital devotion by giving her Italian husband an outrageous gift. “Winter Barley” is the account, alternately lyrical and perverse, of the brief love affair in Scotland between an elderly European prince and a thoroughly modern New England beauty half his age. And in the collection’s title story, “Interesting Women,” a woman on vacation in Thailand reflects with wry detachment on the confessional relationships that spring up between women (“another day, another soul laid bare”), before falling into one herself, which culminates in a hilarious and absurd odyssey through the jungle.

Lee’s beautifully crafted stories offer a rare combination: a sensual evocation of the moment, and profound insight into the underlying struggles—of gender, race, and class—that continue to shape our world. Critically acclaimed when it was first published, this collection is ready to be embraced by a new generation of readers.

Get to know John Lewis, social justice activist and politician, in this fascinating nonfiction Level 3 Ready-to-Read, part of a series of biographies about people “you should meet!”

Meet John Lewis. When John Lewis was a teenager, he asked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown. From then on, John Lewis never stopped organizing, from Freedom Rides, to the marches in Selma and Washington, and more. He believed in getting into “good trouble” for good causes, and became a Civil Rights activist and United States Representative. It’s never too early to introduce readers to his concept of getting into “good trouble,” and to get to know John Lewis.

A special section at the back of the book includes extras like information about other activists around the world, tips for how readers can get into “good trouble” for causes they believe in, and more.

From Newbery Medal honoree, #1 New York Times, and AALBC bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!

Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!

But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.

All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.

Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.

From John Edgar Wideman, “a master [who] boldly subverts what a short story can be” (Publishers Weekly) comes a stunning story collection that spans a range of topics from Michael Jordan to Emmett Till, from childhood memories to the final day in a prison cell.

Forty years after John Edgar Wideman’s first collection of stories was published, he continues to produce new stories of the highest caliber and relevancy. Here, in his sixth story collection, he revisits themes that have infused his work for the duration of his career: family, loss, the penal system, Pittsburgh, physical and emotional life, art, and memory.

Stories include “Separation,” which begins with a boy standing alone beside his grandfather’s coffin, progressing to a scene with the narrator’s grandmother paying the funeral director weekly installments for the price of the casket. “Arizona,” which appeared in The New Yorker, is written in the form of a letter to singer Freddie Jackson, whose song “You Are My Lady,” enters the story through a car radio—a car that conveys the narrator’s son and his lawyers to a prison cell in Arizona. “Atlanta Murders” contemplates James Baldwin’s Evidence of Things Not Seen, written about the Atlanta child murders from 1979 to 1981, beginning with a riff on a “why-did-the chicken-cross-the-road” joke that takes a dark turn.

From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland comes an illustrated nonfiction collection celebrating dancers of color who have influenced her on and off the stage.

As a young girl living in a motel with her mother and her five siblings, Misty Copeland didn’t have a lot of exposure to ballet or prominent dancers. She was sixteen when she saw a black ballerina on a magazine cover for the first time. The experience emboldened Misty and told her that she wasn’t alone—and her dream wasn’t impossible.

In the years since, Misty has only learned more about the trailblazing women who made her own success possible by pushing back against repression and racism with their talent and tenacity. Misty brings these women’s stories to a new generation of readers and gives them the recognition they deserve.

With an introduction from Misty about the legacy these women have had on dance and on her career itself, this book delves into the lives and careers of women of color who fundamentally changed the landscape of American ballet from the early 20th century to today.

In this heartwarming tale inspired by her childhood, superstar chef and TV host Carla Hall shares the story of young Carla, who eats a sugar cookie meant for Santa on the night before Christmas and tries to make things right.

Christmas is Carla’s favorite holiday of the year. She goes to her grandparents’ house and eats grandma’s special recipe—a perfectly delicious cornbread. She listens to her grandpa Doc’s marvelous stories about traveling the world. And, best of all, she spends lots of time with her family.

But when Carla accidentally takes a bite out of Santa’s sugar cookie, she thinks she’s ruined Christmas. How will Santa know to stop at their house if they don’t leave him a midnight snack? With her grandmother’s help, Carla comes up with a plan, but will it be enough to save Christmas?

Told from alternating perspectives, an evocative and riveting novel about the lifelong bond between two women, one Black and one white, whose friendship is indelibly altered by a tragic event—a powerful and poignant exploration of race in America today and its devastating impact on ordinary lives.

Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young, and after years of trying, is finally pregnant. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia.

But the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen’s husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. Six months pregnant, Jen is in freefall as her future, her husband’s freedom, and her friendship with Riley are thrown into uncertainty. Covering this career-making story, Riley wrestles with the implications of this tragic incident for her Black community, her ambitions, and her relationship with her lifelong friend.

Like Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage and Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, We Are Not Like Them explores complex questions of race and how they pervade and shape our most intimate spaces in a deeply divided world. But at its heart, it’s a story of enduring friendship—a love that defies the odds even as it faces its most difficult challenges.

“We Are Not Like Them is a tender and unexpected way into our national debate about policing, by centering an authentically drawn friendship between a black woman and a white woman who find themselves, through no fault of their own, on opposite sides of the emotional fallout of a police shooting. Through the story of this complicated female friendship, the sickness at the center of our current state of policing is laid bare. Beautifully heartfelt, Christine Pride and Jo Piazza’s book finds hope in the friends’ love for one another, that with understanding there may be a way forward.” —Attica Locke, New York Times bestselling author of Heaven, My Home

“Now these women, they can WRITE!” —Terry McMillan, New York Times bestselling author of It’s Not All Downhill from Here

Melody faces her fears to follow her passion in this stunning sequel to the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling middle grade novel Out of My Mind.

Melody, the huge-hearted heroine of Out of My Mind, is now a year older and a year braver. But not as brave as she wants to be, as she’s terrified of horses. Even though she loves horses—loves loves loves them—from afar. Not one to be thwarted, Melody decides summer camp, one with horseback riding, should be her next challenge. Except, are there even riding camps for differently-abled kids? Ones that would welcome a kid with cerebral palsy? She’s going to find out.

M Is for Melanin is an empowering alphabet book that teaches kids their ABCs and celebrates Black children, now available as a board book!

M is for Melanin
shining in every inch of your skin.
Every shade, every hue.
All beautiful and unique.

Each letter of the alphabet contains affirming, Black-positive messages, from A is for Afro, to F is for Fresh, to W is for Worthy. This book teaches children their ABCs while encouraging them to love the skin that they’re in.

Be bold. Be fearless. BE YOU.

Teach little ones that it’s okay to have a bad day in this brightly illustrated, gently affirmative picture book about keeping our heads up and letting things pass.

When a child wakes up late one day, it’s only the first in a series of things to go terribly awry. But the people around them show them that what’s important is being kind to yourself and getting through rough days. Because, after all, tomorrow is a fresh start.

A Book Riot Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of 2021

The creators of the popular website Black Nerd Problems bring their witty and unflinching insight to this engaging collection of pop culture essays on everything from Mario Kart and The Wire to issues of representation and police brutality across media.

When William Evans and Omar Holmon founded Black Nerd Problems, they had no idea whether anyone beyond their small circle of friends would be interested in their little corner of the internet. But soon after launching, they were surprised to find out that there was a wide community of people who hungered for fresh perspectives on all things nerdy, from the perspective of #OwnedVoices.

In the years since, Evans and Holmon have built a large, dedicated fanbase eager for their brand of cultural critique, whether in the form of a laugh-out-loud, raucous Game of Thrones episode recap or an eloquent essay on dealing with grief through stand-up comedy. Now, they are ready to take the next step with this vibrant and hilarious essay collection, which covers everything from X-Men to Breonna Taylor with insight and intelligence.

A much needed and fresh pop culture critique from the perspective of people of color, Black Nerd Problems is the ultimate celebration for anyone who loves a blend of social commentary and all things nerdy.

Read an excusive interview with Carmelo Anthony, about his memoir, at Jet Magazine.

From iconic NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony comes a raw and inspirational memoir about growing up in the housing projects of Red Hook and Baltimore—a brutal world Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised.

For a long time, Carmelo Anthony’s world wasn’t any larger than the view of the hoopers and hustlers he watched from the side window of his family’s first-floor project apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He couldn’t dream any bigger than emulating his older brothers and cousin, much less going on to become a basketball champion on the world stage.

He faced palpable dangers growing up in the housing projects in Red Hook and West Baltimore’s Murphy Homes (a.k.a. Murder Homes, subject of HBO’s The Wire). He navigated an education system that ignored, exploited, or ostracized him. He suffered the untimely deaths of his closely held loved ones. He struggled to survive physically and emotionally. But with the strength of family and the guidance of key mentors on the streets and on the court, he pushed past lethal odds to endure and thrive.

By the time Carmelo found himself at the NBA Draft at Madison Square Garden in 2003 preparing to embark on his legendary career, he wondered: How did a kid who’d had so many hopes, dreams, and expectations beaten out of him by a world of violence, poverty, and racism make it here at all?

Carmelo’s story is one of perseverance and determination; of dribbling past players bigger and tougher than him, while also weaving around vial caps and needles strewn across the court; where dealers and junkies lined one side of the asphalt and kids playing jacks and Double Dutch lined the other; where rims had no nets, and you better not call a foul—a place Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised.

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this “gorgeous” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the “incredible story” (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through. “In Aftershocks, Nadia Owusu tells the incredible story of her young life. How does a girl—abandoned by her mother at age two and orphaned at thirteen when her beloved father dies—find her place in the world? This memoir is the story of Nadia creating her own solid ground across countries and continents. I know the struggle of rebuilding your life in an unfamiliar place. While some of you might be familiar with that and some might not, I hope you’ll take as much inspiration and hope from her story as I did.” —MALALA YOUSAFZAI ?ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2021 SELECTED BY VULTURE, TIME, ESQUIRE, NPR, AND VOGUE!Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. Just as she and her family settled into a new home, her father would tell them it was time to say their goodbyes. The instability wrought by Nadia’s nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures, both lived and inherited. Her Armenian American mother, who abandoned Nadia when she was two, would periodically reappear, only to vanish again. Her father, a Ghanaian, the great hero of her life, died when she was thirteen. After his passing, Nadia’s stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was either a bombshell secret or a lie, rife with shaming innuendo. With these and other ruptures, Nadia arrived in New York as a young woman feeling stateless, motherless, and uncertain about her future, yet eager to find her own identity. What followed, however, were periods of depression in which she struggled to hold herself and her siblings together. “A magnificent, complex assessment of selfhood and why it matters” (Elle), Aftershocks depicts the way she hauled herself from the wreckage of her life’s perpetual quaking, the means by which she has finally come to understand that the only ground firm enough to count on is the one written into existence by her own hand. “Full of narrative risk and untrammeled lyricism” (The Washington Post), Aftershocks joins the likes of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight and William Styron’s Darkness Visible, and does for race identity what Maggie Nelson does for gender identity in The Argonauts.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive storms in American history. In this fictional tale, daring twins Jo Jo and Sophie battle the raging floodwaters in a fight for their lives.

For twins Jo Jo and Sophie Dupre, Hurricane Katrina isn’t the most important thing on their minds-not compared their mother’s cancer treatments, Sophie’s swim meet, and Jo Jo’s upcoming coding competition. But when the storm intensifies and there’s only one seat their aunt’s car, Mom has to be the one to evacuate. The twins and their father are stuck at home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

The winds rise-and with them, the waves. The levees break and floodwater rages through the city. During the chaos, Jo Jo and Sophie are swept away. Together, they must find their way to the Superdome, where their father should be waiting—but can they escape the wrath of one of the deadliest storms in history?

"I’ve learned it takes heart to come out a winner every time, whether you win or lose."
— Michael Jordan

Jonathan wants to win more than anything. But the Badgers haven’t seen much of that lately. For Jonathan, the only good thing about the baseball season is being on the same team as his best friend, Michael. Jonathan wants to believe in himself and his team, but it’s getting harder to do.

Then when Michael’s uncle Jack tells the boys about his golden rules of baseball, Jonathan is confused. What could Uncle Jack mean — there is more to a good game than winning or losing?

Deloris and Roslyn M. Jordan, mother and sister of basketball superstar Michael Jordan, tell a family story of personal best, friendship, and teamwork that will inspire. Kadir Nelson’s radiant illustrations illuminate this story of what it really means to be a champion.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Time, The Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Parade, Goodreads, Fortune, and BBC

​​​"Riveting, fearless, and vividly original." —Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Hotel

"A brilliant combustion of suspense, horror, and social commentary that leaves no assumption unchallenged and no page unturned." —Walter Mosley, internationally bestselling author of Devil in a Blue Dress

Urgent, propulsive, and sharp as a knife, The Other Black Girl is an electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.

Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career.

A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.

From Kiese Laymon, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Heavy, comes a “funny, astute, searching” (The Wall Street Journal) debut novel about Black teenagers that is a satirical exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in post-Katrina Mississippi.

Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteen-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared.

Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson—but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985-version of City, along with his friend and love interest, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called…Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these items with them all the way back to 1964, to help another time-traveler they meet to protect his family from the Ku Klux Klan.

City’s two stories ultimately converge in the work shed behind his grandmother’s house, where he discovers the key to Baize’s disappearance. Brilliantly “skewering the disingenuous masquerade of institutional racism” (Publishers Weekly), this dreamlike “smart, funny, and sharp” (Jesmyn Ward), novel shows the work that young Black Americans must do, while living under the shadow of a history “that they only gropingly understand and must try to fill in for themselves” (The Wall Street Journal).

See the film on Netflix, starring Idris Elba and Caleb McLaughlin

When Cole’s mom dumps him in the mean streets of Philly to live with the dad he’s never met, the last thing he expects to see is a horse—let alone a stable full of them. He may not know much about cowboys, but what he knows for sure is that cowboys ain’t black, and they don’t live in the ’hood. But in this ’hood, horses are a way of life, and when the City threatens to shut down the stables, Cole realizes it’s time to stand up for what’s right—the Cowboy Way.

The daughter of one of the South’s most famous Baptist preachers discovers a shocking secret about her father that puts her at odds with both her faith and her family in this debut novel.

“Spellbinding…Revival Season should be read alongside Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.” —The Washington Post

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Every summer, fifteen-year-old Miriam Horton and her family pack themselves tight in their old minivan and travel through small southern towns for revival season: the time when Miriam’s father—one of the South’s most famous preachers—holds massive healing services for people desperate to be cured of ailments and disease. But, this summer, the revival season doesn’t go as planned, and after one service in which Reverend Horton’s healing powers are tested like never before, Miriam witnesses a shocking act of violence that shakes her belief in her father—and her faith.

When the Hortons return home, Miriam’s confusion only grows as she discovers she might have the power to heal—even though her father and the church have always made it clear that such power is denied to women. Over the course of the following year, Miriam must decide between her faith, her family, and her newfound power that might be able to save others, but if discovered by her father, could destroy Miriam.

Celebrating both feminism and faith, Revival Season is a “tender and wise” (Ann Patchett) story of spiritual awakening and disillusionment in a Southern, Black, Evangelical community.

"K.M. Jackson’s sharp and sassy storytelling is guaranteed to delight." —Farrah Rochon, USA Today bestselling author

Tired white lace, rote promises, same-old ceremonies—some brides have no time for that. They’ll break the rules, turn tradition into straight-up scandal—and improvise as much as it takes to turn their wildest wedding dreams into real love…

Eva Ward has won a lavish wedding on the nation’s hottest morning show and can’t wait to kick off her
happily-ever-after in style. Too bad her fianc� backs out on-air—and cameraman Aidan Walker makes sure her private meltdown goes viral, down to the last couch-kicking moment. The only way Eva can save face and keep her perfect nuptial plans on track is to star in a new "find-a-groom" reality segment. But finding Mr. Right in one month means ignoring her handsome new producer—none other than Aidan himself—and getting their instant, exasperating attraction out of her system…

Eva soon finds there’s a lot more to Aidan than freewheeling charm. But one glimpse of his caring side can’t make up for off-camera politics, Aidan’s own secrets—or Eva’s fear that they’re too different to ever trust each other. So it’s time for her to flip this script, write twists no one will see coming—and risk her heart to get the real thing…

A powerful and “stunning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) selection of the best of John Edgar Wideman’s short stories over his fifty-year career, representing the wide range of his intellectual and artistic pursuits.

When John Edgar Wideman won the PEN Malamud Award in 2019, he joined a list of esteemed writers—from Eudora Welty to George Saunders—all of whom are acknowledged masters of the short story. Wideman’s commitment to short fiction has been lifelong, and here he gathers a representative selection from throughout his career, stories that “have a wary, brooding spirit, a lonely intelligence…[and] air the problem of consciousness, including the fragile contingency of our existence” (The New York Times).

Wideman’s stories are grounded in the streets and the people of Homewood, the Pittsburgh neighborhood of his childhood, but they range far beyond there, to the small western towns of Wyoming and historic Philadelphia, the contemporary world and the ancient past. He explores the interior lives of his characters, and the external pressures that shape them. These stories are as intellectually intricate as they are rich with the language and character. “Wideman has been compared to William Faulkner and James Baldwin…[these] prove that he is every bit as masterful a cartographer of the American spirit as his forebears" (Esquire).

Comprised of thirty-five stories drawn from past collections (American Histories, Briefs, God’s Gym, All Stories Are True, Fever, and Damballah), and an introductory essay by the National Book Critics Circle board member and scholar Walton Muyumba, this volume of Wideman’s selected stories celebrates the lifelong significance of this major American writer’s essential contribution to a form—illuminating the ways that he has made it his own. “If there were any doubts Wideman belongs to the American canon, this puts them to bed” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

The uplifting, unlikely, and inspirational true story of the friendships formed between Cam Perron—a white, baseball-obsessed teenager from Boston—and hundreds of former professional Negro League players, who were still awaiting the recognition and compensation that they deserved from Major League Baseball more than fifty years after their playing days were over. Featuring the players’ fascinating stories and original photographs.

Cam Perron always loved history, and from an early age, he had a knack for collecting. But when he was twelve and bought a set of Topps baseball cards featuring several players from the Negro Leagues, something clicked.

Cam started writing letters to former Negro League players in 2007, asking for their autographs and a few words about their careers. He got back much more than he expected. The players responded with detailed stories about their glory days on the field, and the racism they faced, including run-ins with the KKK. They explained how they were repeatedly kept out of the major leagues and confined to the historic but lower-paying Negro Leagues, even after Jackie Robinson—who got his start in the Negro Leagues—broke the color barrier. By the time Cam finished middle school, letters had turned into phone calls, and he was spending hours a day talking with the players.

In these conversations, many of the players revealed that their careers had been unrecognized over time, and they’d fallen out of touch with their former teammates. So Cam, along with a small group of fellow researchers, organized the first annual Negro League Players Reunion in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010. At the celebratory, week-long event, fifteen-year-old Cam and the players—who were in their 70s, 80s, and 90s—finally met in person. They quickly became family.

As Cam and the players returned to the reunion year after year, Cam became deeply involved in a complicated mission to help many players get pension money that they were owed from Major League Baseball. He also worked to get a Negro League museum opened in Birmingham, and stock it with memorabilia.

Sports fans—and anyone who enjoys a heartfelt story—will have their eyes opened by this book about unlikely friendships, the power of memories, and just how far a childhood interest can go.

An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic 1970s rock duo, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite for one last tour.

Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job—despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records.

In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth.

Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything.

Provocative and chilling, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev features a backup chorus of unforgettable voices, a heroine the likes of which we’ve not seen in storytelling, and a daring structure, and introduces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.

The first in-depth biography of Nipsey Hussle, the hip hop mogul, artist, and activist whose transformative legacy inspired a generation with his motivational lyrics and visionary business savvy—before he was tragically shot down in the very neighborhood he was dedicated to building up.

In the ten years since he first met Nipsey Hussle in the offices of Vibe, journalist Rob Kenner followed Hussle’s career, paying close attention to the music and business movement he was building in Los Angeles. Ten years later, they spoke again. To Kenner, it became clear that Hussle had been underestimated his entire life—not just for his artistry but also for his intellect and intentions.

For Nipsey Hussle, "The Marathon" was more than a mixtape title or the name of a clothing store; it was a way of life, a metaphor for the relentless pursuit of excellence and the willpower required to overcome adversity day after day. Hussle was determined to win the race to success on his own terms, and he wanted to see his whole community in the winner’s circle with him.

Combining on-the-ground reporting and candid interviews with Hussle’s friends, family, and peers, The Marathon Don’t Stop traces the life and work of an extraordinary artist, placing him in historical context and unpacking his complex legacy. For the first time ever, members of his inner circle will speak about the man they knew and his determination to maintain integrity amidst the treacherous extremes of street life and the rap game.

The Marathon Don’t Stop is a journalistic account of Nipsey Hussle’s life and times, making sense of the forces that shaped a singular figure in hip hop culture.

From National Book Award–nominated writer Andrea Lee comes Red Island House, a travel epic that opens a window on the mysterious African island of Madagascar, and on the dangers of life and love in paradise, as seen through the eyes of a Black American heroine.

“People do mysterious things when they think they have found paradise,” reflects Shay, the heroine of Red Island House. When Shay, an intrepid Black American professor, marries Senna, a brash Italian businessman, she doesn’t imagine that her life’s greatest adventure will carry her far beyond their home in Milan: to an idyllic stretch of beach in Madagascar where Senna builds a flamboyant vacation villa. Before she knows it, she becomes the reluctant mistress of a sprawling household, caught between her privileged American upbringing and her connection to the continent of her ancestors. So begins Shay’s journey into the heart of a remote African country. Can she keep her identity and her marriage intact amid the wild beauty and the lingering colonial sins of this mysterious world that both captivates and destroys foreigners?

A mesmerizing, powerful tale of travel and self-discovery that evokes Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Red Island House showcases an extraordinary literary voice and gorgeously depicts a lush and unknown world.

This stunning and empowering picture book from a Caldecott Honor-winning author and illustrator celebrates a Black mother’s hopes and dreams for her daughter.

As I cradle you, look in your eyes,
your gaze says softly,
I want to know everything.
I promise to show you all that I can.

This love letter from mother to daughter inspires young girls to follow their dreams, no matter what challenges life may bring. Young readers will be reminded that love and support from home will follow them as they venture out into the world.

Winter Santiaga is back!

The stunning and long-anticipated sequel to Sister Souljah’s million-copy, AALBC-bestselling, book The Coldest Winter Ever.

Twenty years ago, Sister Souljah’s debut novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, became a bestselling cultural phenomenon. Fans fell in love with the unforgettable Winter Santiaga, daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family, who captivated her lovers, friends, and enemies with her sexy street smarts. For two decades, fans have begged for answers about what happened to Winter.

Now all is revealed in Sister Souljah’s page-turning sequel, filled with her trademark passion, danger, temptation, and adventure. With her jail sentence coming to a close, Winter is ready to step back into the spotlight and reclaim her throne.

The inspiring New York Times bestseller from Common—the Grammy Award, Academy Award, and Golden Globe–winning musician, actor, and activist—explores how love and mindfulness can build communities and allow you to take better control of your life through actions and words.

Common believes that the phrase “let love have the last word” is not just a declaration; it is a statement of purpose, a daily promise. Love is the most powerful force on the planet, and ultimately the way you love determines who you are and how you experience life.

Touching on God, self-love, partners, children, family, and community, Common explores the core tenets of love to help us understand what it means to receive and, most importantly, to give love. He moves from the personal—writing about his daughter, to whom he wants to be a better father—to the universal, where he observes that our society has become fractured under issues of race and politics. He knows there’s no quick remedy for all of the hurt in the world, but love—for yourself and for others—is where the healing begins.

In his first public reveal, Common also shares a deeply personal experience of childhood molestation that he is now confronting…and forgiving.

Courageous, insightful, brave, and characteristically authentic, Let Love Have the Last Word shares Common’s own unique and personal stories of the people and experiences that have led to a greater understanding of love and all it has to offer. It is a powerful call to action for a new generation of open hearts and minds, one that is sure to resonate for years to come.

"For almost two decades, investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell doggedly pursued the Klansmen responsible for some of the most notorious murders of the civil rights movement. This book is his amazing story. Thanks to him, and to courageous prosecutors, witnesses, and FBI agents, justice finally prevailed." —John Grisham, author of The Guardians

On June 21, 1964, more than twenty Klansmen murdered three civil rights workers. The killings, in what would become known as the "Mississippi Burning" case, were among the most brazen acts of violence during the civil rights movement. And even though the killers’ identities, including the sheriff’s deputy, were an open secret, no one was charged with murder in the months and years that followed.

It took forty-one years before the mastermind was brought to trial and finally convicted for the three innocent lives he took. If there is one man who helped pave the way for justice, it is investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell.

In Race Against Time, Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the civil rights movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents, found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan. He takes us into every harrowing scene along the way, as when Mitchell goes into the lion’s den, meeting one-on-one with the very murderers he is seeking to catch. His efforts have put four leading Klansmen behind bars, years after they thought they had gotten away with murder.

Race Against Time is an astonishing, courageous story capturing a historic race for justice, as the past is uncovered, clue by clue, and long-ignored evils are brought into the light. This is a landmark book and essential reading for all Americans.

A “daring, urgent, and transformative” (Brené Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead) exploration of Black achievement in a white world based on honest, provocative, and moving interviews with Black leaders, scientists, artists, activists, and champions.

“I remember the day I realized I couldn’t play a white guy as well as a white guy. It felt like a death sentence for my career.”

When Chad Sanders landed his first job in lily-white Silicon Valley, he quickly concluded that to be successful at work meant playing a certain social game. Each meeting was drenched in white slang and the privileged talk of international travel or folk concerts in San Francisco, which led Chad to believe he needed to emulate whiteness to be successful. So Chad changed. He changed his wardrobe, his behavior, his speech—everything that connected him with his Black identity.

And while he finally felt included, he felt awful. So he decided to give up the charade. He reverted to the methods he learned at the dinner table, or at the Black Baptist church where he’d been raised, or at the concrete basketball courts, barbershops, and summertime cookouts. And it paid off. Chad began to land more exciting projects. He earned the respect of his colleagues. Accounting for this turnaround, Chad believes, was something he calls Black Magic, namely resilience, creativity, and confidence forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man. Black Magic has emboldened his every step since, leading him to wonder: Was he alone in this discovery? Were there others who felt the same?

In “pulverizing, educational, and inspirational” (Shea Serrano, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Basketball (And Other Things) essays, Chad dives into his formative experiences to see if they might offer the possibility of discovering or honing this skill. He tests his theory by interviewing Black leaders across industries to get their take on Black Magic. The result is a revelatory and essential book. Black Magic explores Black experiences in predominantly white environments and demonstrates the risks of self-betrayal and the value of being yourself.

A stirring and powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a black woman in America.

Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love, and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic—and yet she couldn’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older.

Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll’s sense of her blackness and self-esteem. Carroll’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity. As an adult, Carroll forged a path from city to city, struggling along the way with difficult boyfriends, depression, eating disorders, and excessive drinking. Ultimately, through the support of her chosen black family, she was able to heal.

Intimate and illuminating, Surviving the White Gaze is a timely examination of racism and racial identity in America today, and an extraordinarily moving portrait of resilience.

“Carroll shows, page after page, how the journey to, and through, survival, necessitates unrelenting interrogation of the nation’s cauldron of innocence. Carroll has crafted a book as textured, layered and effective as any memoir penned in the 21st century.” — Kiese Laymon, bestselling author of Heavy: An American Memoir

“Rebecca Carroll has devoted her life to sharing, developing, and amplifying our stories—and our story. And in Surviving the White Gaze she tells us hers with the same rigor, the same verve, and the same radical vulnerability that reminds us why we’re lucky to have her.” — Damon Young, bestselling author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker

Instant New York Times bestseller!
“A remarkable, breathtaking, earthshaking, poetic thrillride.” —Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper

?In this riveting, keenly emotional debut fantasy, a Black teen from Houston has her world upended when she learns about her godly ancestry and must save both the human and god worlds. Perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Tomi Adeyemi, and The Hunger Games!

“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders.

Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.

Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghizon—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.

Journalist. Suffragist. Antilynching crusader. In 1862, Ida B. Wells was born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In 2020, she won a Pulitzer Prize.

Ida B. Wells committed herself to the needs of those who did not have power. In the eyes of the FBI, this made her a “dangerous negro agitator.” In the annals of history, it makes her an icon.

Ida B. the Queen tells the awe-inspiring story of a pioneering woman who was often overlooked and underestimated—a woman who refused to exit a train car meant for white passengers; a woman who brought to light the horrors of lynching in America; a woman who cofounded the NAACP. Written by Wells’s great-granddaughter Michelle Duster, this “warm remembrance of a civil rights icon” (Kirkus Reviews) is a unique visual celebration of Wells’s life, and of the Black experience.

A century after her death, Wells’s genius is being celebrated in popular culture by politicians, through song, public artwork, and landmarks. Like her contemporaries Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, Wells left an indelible mark on history—one that can still be felt today. As America confronts the unfinished business of systemic racism, Ida B. the Queen pays tribute to a transformational leader and reminds us of the power we all hold to smash the status quo.

March through history and discover twenty-five groundbreaking protest movements that have shaped the way we fight for equality and justice today in this stunningly illustrated and sweeping book!

For generations, marches have been an invaluable tool for bringing about social change. People have used their voices, the words on their signs, and the strength in their numbers to combat inequality, oppression, and discrimination. They march to call attention to these wrongs and demand change and action, from a local to a global scale.

Whether demanding protective laws or advocating for equal access to things like voting rights, public spaces, and jobs, the twenty-five marches in this book show us that even when a fight seems impossible, marching can be the push needed to tip the scales and create a movement. This gorgeous collection celebrates this rich and diverse history, the often-overlooked stories, and the courageous people who continue to teach us the importance of coming together to march today.

"Wholly engrossing, exquisitely researched, and so timely. Sadeqa Johnson brings a fresh telling to a story we think we already know, making it beautifully relatable and human. Riveting and suspenseful, I highly recommend this novel." —Kathleen Grissom New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen House

This harrowing story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.

Born on a plantation in Charles City Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a privileged life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the plantation’s medicine woman, and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world.

Freedom on her eighteenth birthday has been promised to her, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known and unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous "Devil’s Half-Acre," a jail where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold every day in Richmond, Virginia. There Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailor’s cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive Pheby will have to outwit him but soon faces the ultimate sacrifice.

The first picture book biography written about Zora Neale Hurston

From the Newbery Honor�winning author of Genesis Begins Again comes a shimmering picture book that shines the light on Zora Neale Hurston, the extraordinary writer and storycatcher extraordinaire who changed the face of American literature.

Zora was a girl who hankered for tales like bees for honey. Now, her mama always told her that if she wanted something, “to jump at de sun,” because even though you might not land quite that high, at least you’d get off the ground. So Zora jumped from place to place, from the porch of the general store where she listened to folktales, to Howard University, to Harlem. And everywhere she jumped, she shined sunlight on the tales most people hadn’t been bothered to listen to until Zora. The tales no one had written down until Zora. Tales on a whole culture of literature overlooked…until Zora. Until Zora jumped.

The award-winning author of Lust, Envy, and Greed — soon to be Lifetime movies - delivers an unforgettable story of a marriage at the breaking point.

Victoria Christopher Murray—winner of nine African American Literary Awards and four NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Fiction—is back and better than ever with WRATH, an explosive new Seven Deadly Sins novel. Filled with deep love, dangerous lies, and devastating secrets, this is an “intense morality tale” (Booklist) that “expertly builds ominous tension” (Kirkus Reviews).

Murray’s inspiration for the book’s plot originated with her desire to tell a story grappling with domestic abuse after her Delta Sigma Theta sorority sister was tragically murdered by her husband in 2018.

Chastity and Xavier come from very different backgrounds, though they have one thing in common: they’re both living with family secrets. Chastity had a privileged upbringing as the only child of a prominent pastor, but her view of love has been tainted by her father’s philandering and her mom’s submission to the role of dutiful wife. Xavier’s grandmother raised him in a household built on cruelty, making him insecure and fearful of abandonment.

Sparks fly when Chastity and Xavier meet, and their whirlwind romance feels almost too good to be true. Before long, cracks begin to show in Xavier’s perfect façade, and it is only a matter of time before everything comes crumbling down. When Xavier’s wrath erupts at a level Chastity has never seen, who will it destroy forever?

Wrath is the fourth installment in Murray’s wildly popular Seven Deadly Sins series, which Lifetime is developing as movies. Production on Lust, Envy, and Greed has begun, headed by executive producers T.D. Jakes, Derrick Williams, and Shaun Robinson.

A joyfully poetic board book that delivers an ode to African American girls and the beauty of their curls.

Me
Morning

Mirror Smile

Shine big
hair love

This simple, playful, and beautiful board book stars four friends who celebrate the joy of their hairstyles from bouncing curls to swinging braids.

Jason Reynolds’s Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel Long Way Down is now a gripping, galvanizing graphic novel, with haunting artwork by Danica Novgorodoff.

Will’s older brother, Shawn, has been shot.
Dead.
Will feels a sadness so great, he can’t explain it. But in his neighborhood, there are THE RULES:

No. 1: Crying.
Don’t.
No matter what.

No. 2: Snitching
Don’t.
No matter what.

No. 3: Revenge
Do.
No matter what.

But bullets miss. You can get the wrong guy. And there’s always someone else who knows to follow the rules…

The colors of Hispaniola burst into life in this striking, evocative debut picture book that celebrates the joy of being Dominican.

If Dominican were a color, it would be the sunset in the sky, blazing red and burning bright.
If Dominican were a color, it’d be the roar of the ocean in the deep of the night,
With the moon beaming down rays of sheer delight.

The palette of the Dominican Republic is exuberant and unlimited. Maiz comes up amarillo, the blue-black of dreams washes over sandy shores, and people’s skin can be the shade of cinnamon in cocoa or of mahogany. This exuberantly colorful, softly rhyming picture book is a gentle reminder that a nation’s hues are as wide as nature itself.

Political activist and social media star Candace Owens explains all the reasons how the Democratic Party policies hurt, rather than help, the African American community, and why she and many others are turning right.

What do you have to lose? This question, posed by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to potential black voters, was mocked and dismissed by the mainstream media. But for Candace Owens and many others, it was a wake-up call. A staunch Democrat for all of her life, she began to question the left’s policies toward black Americans, and investigate the harm they inflict on the community.

In Blackout, social media star and conservative commentator Owens addresses the many ways that liberal policies and ideals are actually harmful to African Americans and hinder their ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American Dream. Weaving in her personal story that brought her from the projects to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she demonstrates how she overcame her setbacks and challenges despite the cultural expectation that she should embrace a victim mentality.

Owens argues that government assistance is a double-edged sword, that the left dismisses the faith so important to the black community, that Democratic permissiveness toward abortion disproportionately affects the black babies, that the #MeToo movement hurts black men, and much more. Well-researched and intelligently argued, Blackout lays bare the myth that all black people should vote Democrat—and shows why turning to the right will leave them happier, more successful, and more self-sufficient.

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called "Legendborn" students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a "Merlin" and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

The sequel to the highly charged "Candace Reign "depicts a realistic view of inner-city life as a single mother juggles her busy career, her intelligent son, a new boyfriend, and the return of her son s father after a decade in prison.
Candace Reign Brinton is back and at the top of her game.
The boss at a busy nursing home, Candace makes enough money to spoil herself and her quick-witted teenage son, Emmanuel. She has everything she ever wanted and life gets even better when she meets and falls for Ryan, a smooth-talking sports agent from down South.
Meanwhile, Marci, Candace s younger sister, can t seem to keep herself out of trouble and the wrong kind of love. Partying and spending more than she can afford, Marci soon finds herself at the bad end of some business transactions that could ultimately put her behind bars, unless she gets some help from her big sister.
Juggling a career, parenthood, her gregarious sister, and a too-good-to-be-true flame, Candace thinks she has it all under control. That is, until Prince, Emmanuel s father, walks through the door. Home after more than ten years in jail, Prince wants nothing more than to get his family back, regardless of Candace s hesitations. Not too pleased with her newfound relationship with Ryan, Prince is determined to do everything in his power to convince Candace she needs to be with him.
A steamy sequel to the popular "Candace Reign," the stakes are higher than ever as Candace has everything to gain but even more to lose if she doesn t make the right choices for her own life and the life of her son."

Recipient of a 2021 William C. Morris Honor for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens

Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.

Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.

As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family faćade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.

With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?

Celebrate the amazing accomplishments of LGBTQ activist and trailblazer RuPaul in this inspiring board book.

In this beautifully illustrated board book series, parents can celebrate the accomplishments of LGBTQ heroes and introduce their little ones to the trailblazers who have shaped our world.

RuPaul is America’s most famous drag queen. Whether singing chart-topping dance hits, gracing the covers of magazines, or hosting award-winning television shows, RuPaul is always challenging the status quo and taking people out of their comfort zones. RuPaul has been instrumental in the recognition and acceptance of gay people and drag culture. He has performed at rallies, been the face of AIDS awareness campaigns, and has broken down barriers.

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Erotica returns with this fun, wild, and sensual novel about a brilliant psychologist who dates three men to avoid falling into common dating traps—while accidentally creating new ones for herself.

Prodigy Jenkins has always lived up to her name. At six, she was reading at an eighth-grade level. At fifteen, she was in college. At the ripe age of twenty-three, she had her master’s degree in psychology.

But as brilliant as she is, Prodigy has never found a man who can live up to her expectations, including her current boyfriend, an ambitious lawyer who constantly prioritizes work over romance. Knowing she’s not the only woman who remains unfulfilled in love, Prodigy founds a support group called “Stuck on Stupid” for every woman who has been chewed up and spit out by a man.

As she hears the stories of these other women, Prodigy gives herself a reality check: if she wants to settle down, she can’t rely on her boyfriend to come around. Her epiphany turns into a life-changing experiment as she dates three completely different men at the same time. For once in her life, she’s having fun and getting hers…but is she really satisfying her needs or setting herself up for a fall?

Discover the incredible story of a young daughter of immigrants who would grow up to defend the rights of people everywhere in this moving picture book biography of Senator Kamala Harris.

When Kamala Harris was young, she often accompanied her parents to civil rights marches—so many, in fact, that when her mother asked a frustrated Kamala what she wanted, the young girl responded with: "Freedom!"

As Kamala grew from a small girl in Oakland to a senator running for president, it was this long-fostered belief in freedom and justice for all people that shaped her into the inspiring figure she is today. From fighting for the use of a soccer field in middle school to fighting for the people of her home state in Congress, Senator Harris used her voice to speak up for what she believed in and for those who were otherwise unheard.

Told in Nikki Grimes’s stunning verse and featuring gorgeous illustrations by Laura Freeman, this picture book biography brings to life a story that shows all young people that the American dream can belong to all of us if we fight for one another.

From a creative team with multiple Caldecott Honors comes this vibrant portrait of Aretha Franklin that pays her the R-E-S-P-E-C-T this Queen of Soul deserves.

Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days in her father’s Detroit church where her soaring voice spanned more than three octaves.

Her string of hit songs earned her the title "the Queen of Soul," multiple Grammy Awards, and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But Aretha didn’t just raise her voice in song, she also spoke out against injustice and fought for civil rights.

This authoritative, rhythmic picture book biography will captivate young readers with Aretha’s inspiring story.

Mama’s love is brighter than the sun, even on the rainiest of days. This celebration of a mother-daughter relationship is perfect for sharing with little ones!

On a rainy day when the house smells like cinnamon and Papa and Luca are still asleep, when the clouds are wearing shadows and the wind paints the window with beads of water, I want to be everywhere Mama is.

With lyrical prose and a tender touch, Mama and Me is an ode to the strength of the bond between a mother and a daughter as they spend a rainy day together.

After a multi-billion-dollar media merger, a group of network television staffers at Columbia Station are suddenly downsized leaving them to wonder, what happens next?
So what would you do if one day while you were typing away at your desk, you turned around and discovered your supervisor waiting for you to accompany him to human resources? That very scenario happens to television reporter Liz Reece at one of the most powerful network television stations in the world. Five minutes later, she finds herself doing the walk of shame and being escorted by a security guard, while carrying a box of her belongings out the ornate glass doors of Columbia Station.
It was only yesterday that Liz was interviewing high-profile celebrities and politicos, and now she s suddenly toting a pink slip and severance package in one hand and balancing a box of office tchotchkes in the other. Luckily, or unluckily, she isn t alone and she and her media colleagues struggle to survive this new post-Columbia Station life.
A witty celebration of workplace camaraderie, "Columbia Station" gives you a peek inside their hilarious professional environment and chronicles the employees journey through the difficult downsizing experience from the television network they loved, lived, and breathed, all while attempting to redirect their energies and create lives better than they ever imagined."

This gorgeous and empowering picture book from award-winning author-illustrator Evan Turk paints the portrait of Marietta Barovier, the groundbreaking Renaissance artisan who helped shape the future of Venetian glassmaking.

Marietta and her family lived on the island of Murano, near Venice, as all glassmakers did in the early Renaissance. Her father, Angelo Barovier, was a true maestro, a master of glass. Marietta longed to create gorgeous glass too, but glass was men’s work.

One day her father showed her how to shape the scalding-hot material into a work of art, and Marietta was mesmerized. Her skills grew and grew.

Marietta worked until she created her own unique glass bead: the rosetta. Small but precious, the beautiful beads grew popular around the world and became as valuable as gold. The young girl who was once told she could not create art was now the woman who would leave her mark on glasswork for centuries to come.

Discover the incredible true story of Harlem Grown, a lush garden in New York City that grew out of an abandoned lot and now feeds a neighborhood.

Once
In a big city called New York
In a bustling neighborhood
There was an empty lot.
Nevaeh called it the haunted garden.

Harlem Grown tells the inspiring true story of how one man made a big difference in a neighborhood. After seeing how restless they were and their lack of healthy food options, Tony Hillery invited students from an underfunded school to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful and functional farm. By getting their hands dirty, these kids turned an abandoned space into something beautiful and useful while learning about healthy, sustainable eating and collaboration.

Five years later, the kids and their parents, with the support of the Harlem Grown staff, grow thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables a year. All of it is given to the kids and their families. The incredible story is vividly brought to life with Jessie Hartland’s “charmingly busy art” (Booklist) that readers will pore over in search of new details as they revisit this poignant and uplifting tale over and over again.

Harlem Grown is an independent, not-for-profit organization. The author’s share of the proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to Harlem Grown.

From New York Times bestselling authors Ashley & JaQuavis comes the most epic war tale to ever hit the streets of New York.

All it takes is one truth to crumble an entire empire—but when that truth falls off the lips of a snitch, mayhem is the result. Mariah Smith turns state evidence against Frankie Baby, an infamous gun-for-hire, putting her life on the line. Her son, August, is forced to intervene on her behalf and puts down his murder game which finds him at odds with the legendary Aiden Rushmore.

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Instead of punishing August for the death of Frankie Baby, Rushmore offers him a job. Noticing his potential, he takes the young man under his wing. Rushmore’s son becomes jealous of August and when Rushmore’s chosen son clashes with his natural born heir, a treacherous fight begins and bullets fly. Who will prevail and rise out of the gun smoke to inherit the throne and continue the empire? Which son will be king?

>From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.

“People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ’I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ’I am no longer yours.’”

Haunted and haunting, Jones’s memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one of a kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.

Rainy summer days are no match for a little astronaut who builds the perfect rocket ship for an indoor space adventure to another galaxy, where the sky is his only limit!

A stormy afternoon and an order from Mom to stay inside are no match for this little dreamer, who uses everyday household items—a rocket chair, a cardboard box, an old dish rag, and a super-duper imagination—to whip up a trip around the universe he won’t soon forget.

My Rainy Day Rocket Ship is a high-spirited, engaging salute to the imagination of Black boys who use their beautiful minds to transform the mundane into the extraordinary, dream out loud, and boldly go where their sky is the only limit.

From noted parenting expert and New York Times bestselling author Denene Millner comes the definitive book about parenting African American children.

For over a decade, national parenting expert and bestselling author Denene Millner has published thought-provoking, insightful, and wickedly funny commentary about motherhood on her critically acclaimed website, MyBrownBaby.com. The site, hailed a "must-read" by The New York Times, speaks to the experiences, joys, fears, and triumphs of African American motherhood.

After publishing almost 2,000 posts aimed at lifting the voices of parents of color, Millner has now curated a collection of the website’s most important and insightful essays offering perspectives on issues from birthing while Black to negotiating discipline to preparing children for racism.

Full of essays that readers of all backgrounds will find provocative, My Brown Baby acknowledges that there absolutely are issues that Black parents must deal with that white parents never have to confront if they’re not raising brown children. This book chronicles these differences with open arms, a lot of love, and the deep belief that though we may come from separate places and have different backgrounds, all parents want the same things for our families—and especially for our children.

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Can’t Date Jesus, which Vogue called "a piece of personal and cultural storytelling that is as fun as it is illuminating," comes a wry and insightful essay collection that explores the financial and emotional cost of chasing your dreams.

Ever since Oprah Winfrey told the 2007 graduating class of Howard University, "Don’t be afraid," Michael Arceneaux has been scared to death. You should never do the opposite of what Oprah instructs you to do, but when you don’t have her pocket change, how can you not be terrified of the consequences of pursuing your dreams?

Michael has never shied away from discussing his struggles with debt, but in I Don’t Want to Die Poor, he reveals the extent to which it has an impact on every facet of his life—how he dates; how he seeks medical care (or in some cases, is unable to); how he wrestles with the question of whether or not he should have chosen a more financially secure path; and finally, how he has dealt with his "dream" turning into an ongoing nightmare as he realizes one bad decision could unravel all that he’s earned.

I Don’t Want to Die Poor is an unforgettable and relatable examination about what it’s like leading a life that often feels out of your control. But in Michael’s voice that’s "as joyful as he is shrewd" (BuzzFeed), these razor-sharp essays will still manage to make you laugh and remind you that you’re not alone in this often intimidating journey.

A revelatory, uplifting, and gorgeously illustrated meditation on dedication, hard work, and the power of perseverance from the beloved, New York Times bestselling, and two-time National Book Award-winning Jesmyn Ward.

For Tulane University’s 2018 commencement, Jesmyn Ward delivered a stirring speech about the value of hard work and the importance of respect for oneself and others. Speaking about the challenges she and her family overcame, Ward inspired everyone in the audience with her meditation on tenacity in the face of hardship. Now, in book form, Ward’s moving words will inspire readers as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives, whether, like Ward, they are the first in their families to graduate from college or are preceded by generations, or whether they are embarking on a different kind of journey later in life.

Beautifully illustrated in full color by Gina Triplett, this gorgeous and profound book will charm a generation of students—and their parents. Ward’s inimitable voice shines through as she shares her experience as a Southern black woman and addresses the themes of grit, adversity, and the importance of family bonds. Navigate Your Stars is a perfect gift for anyone in need of inspiration from the author of Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Sing, Unburied, Sing.

National bestselling and award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley returns with an evocative and steamy romance about the secrets and lies that exist within a seemingly perfect marriage.

Meet Shannon and Jay Lovejoy—the rich and successful power couple who, to the fans of their call-in radio show, seem like they’ve got it all. But after three years, their once passionate and loving romance has fizzled and the couple’s divorce becomes embroiled in not only a mess of infidelity and deceit, but the untimely and shocking death of Jay’s mistress, as well.

This fast-paced and emotionally powerful page-turner boldly goes where ReShonda Tate Billingsley has never gone before with her fiction, delivering the perfect combination of romance and suspense in one thrilling novel that will leave you craving more.

A Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, Self Made is the first full-scale biography of "one of the great success stories of American history" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Madam C.J. Walker—the legendary African American entrepreneur and philanthropist—by her great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles.

The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Sarah Breedlove—who would become known as Madam C. J. Walker—was orphaned at seven, married at fourteen, and widowed at twenty. She spent the better part of the next two decades laboring as a washerwoman for $1.50 a week. Then—with the discovery of a revolutionary hair care formula for black women—everything changed. By her death in 1919, Walker managed to overcome astonishing odds: building a storied beauty empire from the ground up, amassing wealth unprecedented among black women, and devoting her life to philanthropy and social activism. Along the way, she formed friendships with great early-twentieth-century political figures such as Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.

Celebrate the heart connection between adopted children and the forever families who welcome them with kindness, care, and unconditional love in this powerful picture book from the author of Honey Baby Sugar Child.

Carol Olivia Clementine lives with Mama Rose. Mama Rose is everything—tender and sweet. She is also as stern and demanding as any good parent should be. In the midst of their happy home, Carol misses her mother and father. She longs to be with them. But until that time comes around, she learns to surrender to the love that is present. Mama Rose becomes her "home." And Carol Olivia Clementine concludes that she loves Miss Rose, "just like a mama."

This sweet read-aloud is, on the surface, all about the everyday home life a caregiver creates for a young child: she teachers Clementine how to ride a bike, clean her room, tell time. A deeper look reveals the patience, intention, and care little ones receives in the arms of a mother whose blood is not her blood, but whose bond is so deep—and so unconditional—that it creates the most perfect condition for a child to feel safe, successful, and deeply loved.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Wait and “spiritual teacher for our times” (Oprah Winfrey) frankly and openly explores why men behave the way they do and what everyone—men and women alike—need to know about it.

We hear it all the time. Men cheat. Men love power. Men love sex. Men are greedy. Men are dogs. But is this really the truth about men?

In this groundbreaking book, DeVon Franklin dishes the real truth by making the compelling case that men aren’t dogs but all men share the same struggle. He provides the manual for how men can change, both on a personal and a societal level by providing practical solutions for helping men learn how to resist temptation, how to practice self-control, and how to love.

But The Truth About Men isn’t just for men. DeVon tells female readers everything they need to know about men. He offers women a real-time understanding of how men’s struggles affect them, insights that can help them navigate their relationships with men and information on how to heal from the damage that some misbehaving men may have inflicted.

This book is a raw, informative, and accessible look at an issue that threatens to tear our society apart yet it offers a positive way forward for men and women alike.

Frankie Sparks uses her inventing skills to trap a leprechaun in this fourth chapter book in the STEM inspired Frankie Sparks, Third-Grade Inventor series.

It’s springtime in Ms. Cupid’s class, and the entire class is excited to build their very own leprechaun traps. Maybe, if they catch one, they will all get the gift of good luck!

And after a few magical clues, it looks like there might be a leprechaun on the loose in Frankie Sparks’s house! Her best friend, Maya, is convinced the leprechaun exists, but Frankie has her doubts—especially when it feels like every trap she designs fails! Will Frankie and Maya find their lucky charm, or figure out how to create some luck all on their own?

Discover the astonishing, inspirational, and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen black men and two black women were torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. After all, they were representing a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete in a country amidst a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism.

Jesse Owens is the most recognized of the group for winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics. Other winners include Jackie Robinson’s brother Mack who won silver for the 200-meter race, and Cornelius Johnson, who led an American sweep in the high jump.

As a companion piece to the brilliant documentary Olympic Pride, American Prejudice this book draws on over forty hours of interviews and extensive research the filmmakers obtained which did not make the final film cut. It explores key elements of the story and provides fuller context on the prospect of an Olympic boycott, the relationships between the president of the International Olympic Committee and the Nazis, the different perspectives of Jewish athletes, the NAACP and black newspapers, and details about the actual lives of the eighteen Olympians from family members’ testimonials.

Capturing a powerful and untold piece of history, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice is also a celebration of the courage, commitment, and accomplishments of these talented athletes.

From the row houses of Baltimore to the stoops of Brooklyn, the New York Times bestselling author of The Cook Up lays bare the voices of the most vulnerable and allows their stories to uncover the systematic injustice threaded within our society. Honest and eye-opening, the pages of We Speak for Ourselves "are abundant with wisdom and wit; integrity and love, not to mention enough laughs for a stand-up comedy routine" (Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math).

Watkins introduces you to Down Bottom, the storied community of East Baltimore that holds a mirror to America’s poor black neighborhoods—"hoods" that could just as easily be in Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, or Atlanta. As Watkins sees it, the perspective of people who live in economically disadvantaged black communities is largely absent from the commentary of many top intellectuals who speak and write about race.

Unapologetic and sharp-witted, D. Watkins is here to tell the truth as he has seen it. We Speak for Ourselves offers an in-depth analysis of inner-city hurdles and honors the stories therein. We sit in underfunded schools, walk the blocks burdened with police corruption, stand within an audience of Make America Great Again hats, journey from trap house to university lecture, and rally in neglected streets. And we listen.

"Watkins has come to remind us, everyone deserves the opportunity to speak for themselves" (Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author) and serves hope to fellow Americans who are too often ignored and calling on others to examine what it means to be a model activist in today’s world. We Speak for Ourselves is a must-read for all who are committed to social change.

A stirring picture book biography from award-winning duo Carole Boston Weatherford and Bryan Collier, about gospel composer and preacher Charles Albert Tindley, best known for the gospel hymn "We’ll Understand It Better By and By."

At a time when most African Americans were still enslaved, Charles Tindley was born free. His childhood was far from easy, with backbreaking hours in the fields, and no opportunity to go to school. But the spirituals he heard as he worked made him long to know how to read the Gospel for himself. Late at night, he taught himself to read from scraps of newspapers. From those small scraps, young Charles raised himself to become a founding father of American gospel music whose hymn was the basis for the Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."

Told in lilting verse with snippets of spirituals and Tindley’s own hymns woven throughout, Carole Boston Weatherford’s lyrical words and Bryan Collier’s luminous pictures celebrate a man whose music and conviction has inspired countless lives.

Learn about the civil rights activist Ella Baker in this informative, lyrical picture book from Sibert Honor winner Patricia Hruby Powell and Caldecott Honor winner R. Gregory Christie.

"What do you hope to accomplish?" asked Ella Baker’s granddaddy when she was still a child.
Her mother provided the answer: "Lift as you climb."

Long before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, Ella Baker worked to lift others up by fighting racial injustice and empowering poor African Americans to stand up for their rights. Her dedication and grassroots work in many communities made her a valuable ally for leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and she has been ranked as one of the most influential women in the civil rights movement. In the 1960s she worked to register voters and organize sit-ins, and she became a teacher and mentor to many young activists. For Ella, the spotlight wasn’t as important as asking the people around her: "What do you hope to accomplish?"

Renowned author Lesa Cline-Ransome and celebrated illustrator John Parra unite to tell the inspiring story of Ethel Payne, a groundbreaking African American journalist known as the First Lady of the Black Press.

"I’ve had a box seat on history."

Ethel Payne always had an ear for stories. Seeking truth, justice, and equality, Ethel followed stories from her school newspaper in Chicago to Japan during World War II. It even led her to the White House briefing room, where she broke barriers as the only black female journalist. Ethel wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions of presidents, elected officials, or anyone else in charge, earning her the title, "First Lady of the Black Press."

Fearless and determined, Ethel Payne shined a light on the darkest moments in history, and her ear for stories sought answers to the questions that mattered most in the fight for Civil Rights.

Learn all about dreamers who changed history in this engaging and hopeful board book perfect for dreamers-in-training!

In this sixth book in the This Little series, now even the youngest readers can learn all about important people in history who dared to dream big for a better future! Highlighting ten memorable dreamers who paved the way, parents and little ones alike will love this inspirational primer full of fun, age-appropriate facts and bold illustrations.

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History**

“Extraordinary…a great American biography” (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era.

As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.

Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights.

In this "cinematic and deeply engaging" (The New York Times Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass’s newspapers. "Absorbing and even moving…a brilliant book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglass’s" (The Wall Street Journal), Blight’s biography tells the fascinating story of Douglass’s two marriages and his complex extended family. "David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass…a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the nineteenth century" (The Boston Globe).

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Frederick Douglass won the Bancroft, Parkman, Los Angeles Times (biography), Lincoln, Plutarch, and Christopher awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Time.

A Classic Originally Published in the Late 1990s

Trying to find out why her man did her wrong and who did him in, this woman isn’t waiting to exhale—she’s ready to fight back.

Patricia Conley considers herself to be a brother’s worst nightmare. A lifetime of hurt has made her fierce. A lifetime of victories has made her proud. And a whole lot of hope keeps her going. Now Patricia’s most daring stab at happiness has come up bad: The man she was supposed to marry has stood her up. Last seen holding hands with another woman, Kenneth Lawson has vanished.

Still reeling from Kenneth’s disappearance, Patricia is stunned by a series of macabre discoveries. Her car is found bathed in blood. A woman is found dead. And another too-good-to-be-true brother is offering his services. Suddenly the tough-talking Atlanta journalist doesn’t know who to trust. Because in a collision of murder, religion, love, and race, Patricia has learned some extraordinary secrets—some about Kenneth Lawson, a few about herself, and one that the whole world needs to know….

JJ Smith, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, provides an all-new and accessible detox system that rids the body of unwanted fat and bacteria for renewed energy and lasting weight loss.

In the tradition of certified weight loss expert and nutritionist JJ Smith’s 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, Think Yourself Thin, and Green Smoothies for Life, comes the 7-Day Apple Cider Vinegar Cleanse. This revolutionary cleanse includes meals and drinks that help support the body’s natural detoxification process and promote a healthy environment for good bacteria in the body. All of the new and delicious 25 recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks will effectively help rid of your body of toxins and unwanted fat in just 7 days, jumpstarting your journey to permanent weight loss.

In the bestselling tradition of The Notorious RBG comes a lively, informative, and illustrated tribute to one of the most exceptional women in American history—Harriet Tubman—a heroine whose fearlessness and activism still resonates today.

Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political, and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places … including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.

As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?” — all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

With “fresh and honest”; (Jojo Moyes) prose, Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.

Nikki Maxwell’s summer is packed with drama in this fourteenth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series!

Nikki and her bandmates are looking forward to an AWESOME summer on tour as the opening act for the world famous Bad Boyz! Nikki is a little worried when her frenemy, MacKenzie Hollister, weasels her way into a social media intern position with the tour. But she has a total MELTDOWN when she learns that MacKenzie is her new roommate! Will Nikki survive her dream tour as it quickly goes from AWESOME to AWFUL?! The drama continues in Dork Diaries 14: Tales from a Not-So-Best Friend Forever!

Instagram star and founder of Inspire Me! Home Décor shares her creative and elegant interior design secrets so you can create a glamorous yet cozy home without spending a fortune.

Farah Merhi launched Inspire Me! Home Decor in 2012 as a creative outlet during a transitional time in her life. Farah was about to graduate college and planned to attend law school. Going through the motions and feeling unfulfilled in her career choice, she built up the courage to face her truth. Taking time off to figure herself out, Farah, through a remodel project in her home, had her "ah-ha" moment. The importance of taking care of your home, specifically in the way you clean, organize, and design, was instilled in her at a young age, but she didn’t realize how much of an impact her upbringing had until she owned her own home. Farah knew she had found her passion and calling, and was determined to inspire home owners to live their best lives in their homes.

Farah believes that taking care of your home is essential to your peace of mind. Her design style is elegant and glamorous but infused with warmth and coziness, creating a welcoming feel with neutral color palletes, soft and inviting fabrics, and exquisite design details that can work in any room. She believes you can make a statement without sacrificing an inviting feel to your rooms. There is no right and wrong when it comes to designing your home and Farah encourages you to focus on the overall look and feel you desire, and her tips and advice will help guide you through the process.

Starting with her most frequently asked questions about paint color versus wallpaper, lighting and rugs, home organization, and of course styling, Farah walks you through every room in the house from the mudroom to the kitchen and kids’ bedrooms. Along the way, she includes quick seasonal updates on a budget, suggested routines for maintaining your space, and her unique reward system, which includes small styling vignettes around your home.

Woven throughout are Farah’s personal stories that will feel like you’re getting design advice from a close friend. Everyone deserves to walk into a beautifully decorated home every day—now you can, with the inspiration and practical tips in Inspire Your Home.

In her own words, Cyntoia Brown shares the riveting and redemptive story of how she changed her life for the better while in prison, finding hope through faith after a traumatic adolescence of drug addiction, rape, and sex trafficking led to a murder conviction.

Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to life in prison for a murder she committed at the age of sixteen. Her case became national news when celebrities and activists made the hashtag #FreeCyntoia go viral in 2017. She was granted full clemency after having served fifteen years, walking out a free woman on August 7, 2019.

This is her story, in her own words.

In these pages, written over the fifteen years she was incarcerated, Cyntoia shares the difficult early life that lead to that fateful night and how she found the strength to not only survive, but thrive, in prison.

A coming-of-age memoir set against the shocking backdrop of a life behind bars, Free Cyntoia takes you on a spiritual journey as Cyntoia struggles to overcome a legacy of family addiction and a lifetime of feeling ostracized and abandoned by society.

Born to a teenage alcoholic mother who was also a victim of sex trafficking, Brown reflects on the isolation, low self-esteem, and sense of alienation that drove her straight into the hands of a predator.

Though she attempts to build a positive path and honor the values her beloved adoptive mother taught her, Cyntoia succumbs to harmful influences that drive her to a cycle of promise and despair. After a fateful meeting with a prison educator turned mentor, Cyntoia makes the pivotal decision to take classes at Lipscomb University and strive for a better future, even if she’s never freed.

For the first time ever, Cyntoia shares the details of her transformation, including a profound encounter with God, an unlikely romance, and an unprecedented outpouring of support from social media advocates and A-list celebrities, which ultimately lead to clemency and her release from prison.

Giving a rare look at the power of love, forgiveness, and self-discovery in the darkest of places, Free Cyntoia is a deeply personal portrait of one woman’s journey for redemption within a system that had failed her from childhood.

From Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o comes a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within.

From Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, Illustrated by Vashti Harrison (2019, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Sulwe has skin the color of midnight. She is darker than everyone in her family. She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything.

In this stunning debut picture book, actress Lupita Nyong’o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.

From celebrated author and illustrator Ashley Bryan comes a deeply moving picture book memoir about serving in the segregated army during World War II, and how love and the pursuit of art sustained him.

In May of 1942, at the age of eighteen, Ashley Bryan was drafted to fight in World War II. For the next three years, he would face the horrors of war as a black soldier in a segregated army.

He endured the terrible lies white officers told about the black soldiers to isolate them from anyone who showed kindness—including each other. He received worse treatment than even Nazi POWs. He was assigned the grimmest, most horrific tasks, like burying fallen soldiers…but was told to remove the black soldiers first because the media didn’t want them in their newsreels. And he waited and wanted so desperately to go home, watching every white soldier get safe passage back to the United States before black soldiers were even a thought.

For the next forty years, Ashley would keep his time in the war a secret. But now, he tells his story.

The story of the kind people who supported him.
The story of the bright moments that guided him through the dark.
And the story of his passion for art that would save him time and time again.

Filled with never-before-seen artwork and handwritten letters and diary entries, this illuminating and moving memoir by Newbery Honor-winning illustrator Ashley Bryan is both a lesson in history and a testament to hope.

A New York Times bestseller!

A visit to Washington, DC’s National Portrait Gallery forever alters Parker Curry’s young life when she views First Lady Michelle Obama’s portrait.

When Parker Curry came face-to-face with Amy Sherald’s transcendent portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, she didn’t just see the First Lady of the United States. She saw a queen—one with dynamic self-assurance, regality, beauty, and truth who captured this young girl’s imagination. When a nearby museum-goer snapped a photo of a mesmerized Parker, it became an internet sensation. Inspired by this visit, Parker, and her mother, Jessica Curry, tell the story of a young girl and her family, whose trip to a museum becomes an extraordinary moment, in a moving picture book.

Parker Looks Up follows Parker, along with her baby sister and her mother, and her best friend Gia and Gia’s mother, as they walk the halls of a museum, seeing paintings of everyone and everything from George Washington Carver to Frida Kahlo, exotic flowers to graceful ballerinas. Then, Parker walks by Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama…and almost passes it. But she stops…and looks up!

Parker saw the possibility and promise, the hopes and dreams of herself in this powerful painting of Michelle Obama. An everyday moment became an extraordinary one…that continues to resonate its power, inspiration, and indelible impact. Because, as Jessica Curry said, "anything is possible regardless of race, class, or gender."

**FOREWORD BY ARTIST AMY SHERALD**

From National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a novel told in ten blocks, showing all they different directions a walk home can take.

This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy—

Talking about boogers.
Stealing pocket change.
Skateboarding.
Wiping out.
Braving up.
Executing complicated handshakes.
Planning an escape.
Making jokes.
Lotioning up.
Finding comfort.
But mostly, too busy walking home.

Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life.

Lu is the man, the kid, the guy. The one and only. Not only was he a miracle baby but he is albino. He’s special down to his gold chains and diamond earrings, but he feels a little less once-in-a-lifetime when his parents tell him they’re pregnant again. On top of this sobering news, he’s leading the Defenders alongside a cocaptain who isn’t pleased about sharing the title; and he’s training for the 110-meter hurdles, choking at every leap. As the championship approaches, can he prove his uniqueness one final time? As with the prior titles, the final installment in the four-book Track series is uplifting and moving, full of athletic energy and eye-level insight into the inner-city middle-school track-team experience. While it must be said that Lu has the least distinct voice of the four narrators—and given that Reynolds has proven himself to be an absolute master of voice, that is disappointing—this story is not a letdown. Virtually every subplot is a moving moral lesson on integrity, humility, or reconciliation, and Reynolds wraps up his powerful series with a surprising ending, all while scattering rewarding details about Ghost, Patina, and Sunny to let the reader truly revel in this multidimensional world as it comes to a close. — Becca Worthington—Booklist *STARRED REVIEW* "Oct 1, 2018 "

From award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome and acclaimed illustrator Raúl Colón comes the sensitive, informative, and inspiring picture book biography of the remarkable mathematician Katherine Johnson, one of the NASA "human computers" whose work was critical to the first US space launch.

Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or astronauts walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used their knowledge, pencils, adding machines, and writing paper to calculate the orbital mechanics needed to launch spacecraft. Katherine Johnson was one of these mathematicians who used trajectories and complex equations to chart the space program. Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws were in place in the early 1950s, Katherine worked analyzing data at the NACA (later NASA) Langley laboratory.

In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Katherine Johnson was called upon and John Glenn said "get the girl" (Katherine Johnson) to run the numbers by hand to chart the complexity of the orbital flight. He knew that his flight couldn’t work without her unique skills.

President Barack Obama awarded Katherine Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and her incredible life inspired the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures. Get to know this incredible and inspirational woman with this beautifully illustrated picture book from an award-winning duo.

"Contagiously upbeat, joyful, and positive … [C]herish this book." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

"A must-have for any library that is in need of books with positive representation for and about black children, as there is no other alphabet book quite like this one." -School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

"A necessary, uplifting volume that celebrates ’black girl magic’ and ’black boy joy.’" -Publishers Weekly

M Is for Melanin is an empowering alphabet book that teaches kids their ABCs and celebrates Black children!

M is for Melanin
shining in every inch of your skin.
Every shade, every hue.
All beautiful and unique.

Each letter of the alphabet contains affirming, Black-positive messages, from A is for Afro, to F is for Fresh, to W is for Worthy. This book teaches children their ABCs while encouraging them to love the skin that they’re in.

Be bold. Be fearless. BE YOU.

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019!
"Gripping and timely." —People
"The YA debut we’re most excited for this year." —Entertainment Weekly
"A book that knocks you off your feet while dropping the kind of knowledge that’ll keep you down for the count. Prepare to BE slain." —Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out

Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give in this dynamite debut novel that follows a fierce teen game developer as she battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for Black gamers.

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

Gappah’s powerful novel of exploration and adventure in 19th-century Africa is the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried explorer and missionary Dr. Livingstone’s body, his papers, and maps, 1,500 miles across the continent of Africa, so his remains could be returned home to England and his work preserved there.

A stunning debut novel, from Rhodes Scholar and winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Tope Folarin about a Nigerian family living in Utah and their uncomfortable assimilation to American life.

Living in small-town Utah has always been an uneasy fit for Tunde Akinola’s family, especially for his Nigeria-born parents. Though Tunde speaks English with a Midwestern accent, he can’t escape the children who rub his skin and ask why the black won’t come off. As he struggles to fit in and find his place in the world, he finds little solace from his parents who are grappling with their own issues.

Tunde’s father, ever the optimist, works tirelessly chasing his American dream while his wife, lonely in Utah without family and friends, sinks deeper into schizophrenia. Then one otherwise-ordinary morning, Tunde’s mother wakes him with a hug, bundles him and his baby brother into the car, and takes them away from the only home they’ve ever known.

But running away doesn’t bring her, or her children, any relief from the demons that plague her; once Tunde’s father tracks them down, she flees to Nigeria, and Tunde never feels at home again. He spends the rest of his childhood and young adulthood searching for connection—to the wary stepmother and stepbrothers he gains when his father remarries; to the Utah residents who mock his father’s accent; to evangelical religion; to his Texas middle school’s crowd of African-Americans; to the fraternity brothers of his historically black college. In so doing, he discovers something that sends him on a journey away from everything he has known.

Sweeping, stirring, and perspective-shifting, A Particular Kind of Black Man is a beautiful and poignant exploration of the meaning of memory, manhood, home, and identity as seen through the eyes of a first-generation Nigerian-American.

Celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Shelia P. Moses’s National Book Award finalist and Coretta Scott King Honoree, The Legend of Buddy Bush, with this new edition of a classic novel that’s more relevant than ever.

The day Uncle Goodwin “Buddy” Bush came from Harlem all the way back home to Rehobeth Road in Rich Square, North Carolina, is the day Pattie Mae Sheals’s life changes forever.

Pattie Mae adores and admires Uncle Buddy—he’s tall and handsome and he doesn’t believe in the country stuff most people believe in, like ghosts and stepping off the sidewalk to let white folks pass. But when Buddy is arrested for a crime against a white woman that he didn’t commit, Pattie Mae and her family are suddenly set to journeying on the long, hard road that leads from loss and rage to forgiveness and pride.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019

"This rich volume is a national treasure." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Captivating, informative, and inspiring…Easy to follow and hard to put down." —School Library Journal (starred review)

The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11.

As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with the support of a professor who saw great promise in her. But ability and opportunity did not always go hand in hand. As an African American and a girl growing up in an era of brutal racism and sexism, Katherine faced daily challenges. Still, she lived her life with her father’s words in mind: "You are no better than anyone else, and nobody else is better than you."

In the early 1950s, Katherine was thrilled to join the organization that would become NASA. She worked on many of NASA’s biggest projects including the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon.

Katherine Johnson’s story was made famous in the bestselling book and Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures. Now in Reaching for the Moon she tells her own story for the first time, in a lively autobiography that will inspire young readers everywhere.

A School Library Journal Best Picture Book of 2019!

Find out what happens when a boy who wants a puppy gets a truck instead in this simple and sweet picture book from Caldecott Honor winner Brian Pinkney.

Vroom…beep…bark!

Carter wants a puppy, but he gets a truck instead. So he pets it, puts a leash around it, and takes it to the park.

But the truck won’t sit still! What will Carter do with his rascally Puppy Truck?

Passion, money, and a deliciously devious twist: Greed is the newest novel in award-winning author Victoria Christopher Murray’s Seven Deadly Sins series—“the drama of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” (Booklist)—and soon to be a Lifetime movie.

Thirty-four-year old Zuri Maxwell has a decent life: Richard, her long-term boyfriend, treats her well, and her career as an advertising sales rep is going just fine. But the commission-based nature of her income makes her wish that Richard were more ambitious in his role as maintenance supervisor of an upscale apartment building, and she longs for the chance to be a little more spontaneous with their hard-earned money.

When Zuri has a chance encounter with a sleek entrepreneur eager to pick her brain about the advertising world, she jumps at the chance to talk business with someone who seems to have everything she wants. He wines and dines her, and because they never cross the line into a physical relationship, Zuri’s conscience remains clear—mostly.

As Zuri grows more and more accustomed to lavish gifts and red-carpet events, will her unglamorous romance with Richard still be enough for her? Will she give up the stable, loving life she knows for an uncertain future on a wealthy man’s arm?

Award-winning author and illustrator Evan Turk showcases the beauty and importance of the National Parks in this gorgeous picture book that takes readers on an amazing tour across the United States.

Beneath the soaring doorways of stone,
and peaks that pierce the ceiling of clouds,
from every river, star, and stone
comes the eternal refrain:
you are home.

In simple, soaring language and breathtaking art, acclaimed author-illustrator Evan Turk has created a stirring ode to nature and nation. From the rugged coast of Maine to the fiery volcanoes of Hawaii, You Are Home reminds us that every animal, plant, and person helps make this land a brilliant, beautiful sanctuary of life.

From #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries author Rachel Renée Russell comes the third book in a series about Max Crumbly and his daily ups and downs in middle school.

When we last left our courageous hero, Max Crumbly, and his trusty sidekick Erin, they had just finished foiling the plans of some bumbling thieves. But Max and Erin were trapped in a smelly, dangerous dumpster of doom and about to be discovered by the last people they wanted to find them.

Now in this latest installment of Max’s journals, Max and Erin face foes both new and old as their misadventures continue. Can the two friends avoid detection—and detention!—while keeping South Ridge Middle School safe from bullies and criminals?

The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’ rap group Clipping.

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.

Written in the spirit of Joan Didion’s essay Notes from a Native Daughter and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, a revelatory look at today’s America from writer and activist Kevin Powell as told through an examination of three crucial figures in his life: his mother, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Through personal anecdotes and painstaking research, Kevin Powell delivers an autobiography of America as well as revealing portraits of three diverse and important people in his lifetime. First, he offers an intimate look at his mother, a product of the American South who lived through segregation, classism, and sexism—and still succeeded in raising her son to become a strong Black man.

Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of Barack Obama’s first presidential victory, Powell also reflects on the legacy of the forty-forth President and his evolution from a revered figure to a hotly debated and polarizing leader by people of all backgrounds. Finally, drawing on his experience touring the South as an activist and public speaker, Powell observes the dynamic rise of President Donald Trump’s popularity and the cultural influence of his supporters.

During this time of confusion, in a nation that’s divided like never before but continues to become more and more diverse than ever, Powell addresses the urgent conversation about race, class, and identity with keenness and compassion.

An insightful, candid, and inspiring memoir from Karamo Brown — Queer Eye’s beloved culture expert — as he shares his story for the first time, exploring how the challenges in his own life have allowed him to forever transform the lives of those in need.

When Karamo Brown first auditioned for the casting directors of Netflix’s Queer Eye, he knew he wouldn’t win the role of culture expert by discussing art and theater. Instead he decided to redefine what “culture” could — and should — mean for the show. He took a risk and declared, “I am culture.”

Karamo believes that culture is so much more than art museums and the ballet — it’s how people feel about themselves and others, how they relate to the world around them, and how their shared labels, burdens, and experiences affect their daily lives in ways both subtle and profound. Seen through this lens, Karamo is culture: his family is Jamaican and Cuban; he was raised in the South in predominantly white neighborhoods and attended an HBCU (Historically Black College/University); he was trained as a social worker and psychotherapist; he overcame personal issues of colorism, physical and emotional abuse, alcohol and drug addiction, and public infamy; he is a proud and dedicated gay single father of two boys, one biological and one adopted. It is by discussing deep subjects like these, he feels, that the makeovers on the show can attain their full, lasting meaning. Styling your hair and getting new clothes and furniture are important, but it’s imperative that you figure out why you haven’t done so in twenty years so you can truly change your life.

In this eye-opening and moving memoir, Karamo reflects on his lifelong education. It comprises every adversity he has overcome, as well as the lessons he has learned along the way. It is only by exploring our difficulties and having the hard conversations — with ourselves and one another — that we are able to adjust our mind-sets, heal emotionally, and move forward to live our best lives.

Karamo shows us the way.

“A lyrical masterpiece.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

Originally performed at the Kennedy Center for the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and later as a tribute to Walter Dean Myers, this stirring and inspirational poem is New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds’s rallying cry to the dreamers of the world.

For Every One is exactly that: for every one. For every one person. For every one who has a dream. But especially for every kid. The kids who dream of being better than they are. Kids who dream of doing more than they almost dare to imagine. Kids who are like Jason Reynolds, a self-professed dreamer. Jason does not claim to know how to make dreams come true; he has, in fact, been fighting on the front line of his own battle to make his own dreams a reality. He expected to make it when he was sixteen. Then eighteen. Then twenty-five. Now, some of those expectations have been realized. But others, the most important ones, lay ahead, and a lot of them involve kids, how to inspire them: All the kids who are scared to dream, or don’t know how to dream, or don’t dare to dream because they’ve NEVER seen a dream come true. Jason wants kids to know that dreams take time. They involve countless struggles. But no matter how many times a dreamer gets beat down, the drive and the passion and the hope never fully extinguishes—because simply having the dream is the start you need, or you won’t get anywhere anyway, and that is when you have to take a leap of faith.

A pitch-perfect graduation, baby, or inspirational gift for anyone who needs to me reminded of their own abilities—to dream.

Winner of the 2020 Locus, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and Brave New Words Awards.“There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns,” proclaimed Octavia E. Butler.New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color showcases emerging and seasoned writers of many races telling stories filled with shocking delights, powerful visions of the familiar made strange. Between this book’s covers burn tales of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their indefinable overlappings. These are authors aware of our many possible pasts and futures, authors freed of stereotypes and clichés, ready to dazzle you with their daring genius.Unexpected brilliance shines forth from every page.Includes stories by Kathleen Alcala, Minsoo Kang, Anil Menon, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Alex Jennings, Alberto Yanez, Steven Barnes, Jaymee Goh, Karin Lowachee, E. Lily Yu, Andrea Hairston, Tobias Buckell, Hiromi Goto, Rebecca Roanhorse, Indrapramit Das, Chinelo Onwualu and Darcie Little Badger.

In a thrillingly alive, candid new work, award-winning author Mitchell S. Jackson takes us inside the drug-ravaged neighborhood and struggling family of his youth, while examining the cultural forces—large and small—that led him and his family to this place.

With a poet’s gifted ear, a novelist’s sense of narrative, and a journalist’s unsentimental eye, Mitchell S. Jackson candidly explores his tumultuous youth in the other America. Survival Math takes its name from the calculations Mitchell and his family made to keep safe—to stay alive—in their community, a small black neighborhood in Portland, Oregon blighted by drugs, violence, poverty, and governmental neglect.

Survival Math is both a personal reckoning and a vital addition to the national conversation about race. Mitchell explores the Portland of his childhood, tracing the ways in which his family managed their lives in and around drugs, prostitution, gangs, and imprisonment as members of a tiny black population in one of the country’s whitest cities. He discusses sex work and serial killers, gangs and guns, near-death experiences, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of drugs and addiction on family.

In examining the conflicts within his family and community, Jackson presents a microcosm of struggle and survival in contemporary urban America—an exploration of the forces that shaped his life, his city, and the lives of so many black men like him. As Jackson charts his own path from drug dealer to published novelist, he gives us a heartbreaking, fascinating, lovingly rendered view of the injustices and victories, large and small, that defined his youth.

An NPR Favorite Book of 2019
A New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2019
An NYPL Best Book of 2019
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019
A School Library Journal Best Picture Book of 2019
A BookPage Best Picture Book of 2019
A Horn Book Fanfare Selection of 2019

In his eagerly anticipated debut as author-illustrator, Caldecott and Coretta Scott King honoree Christian Robinson brings young readers on a playful, imaginative journey into another world.

What if you…
encountered another perspective?
Discovered another world?
Met another you?

What might you do?

This “vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive” (George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo) collection of stories examines the concept of black identity in this so-called post-racial era.

A stunning new talent in literary fiction, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class in these compelling, boundary-pushing vignettes “stuffed with invention” (Publishers Weekly).

Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. Some are darkly humorous—from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide—while others are devastatingly poignant—a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture.

Thompson-Spires fearlessly shines a light on the simmering tensions and precariousness of black citizenship. Her stories are exquisitely rendered, satirical, and captivating in turn, engaging in the ongoing conversations about race and identity politics, as well as the vulnerability of the black body. “Heads of the Colored People is a necessary and powerful new collection with, thankfully, not a dull sentence to be found” (Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here?). Boldly resisting categorization and easy answers, Thompson-Spires’s collection “cements her role as an incredibly important voice in literature right now” (PopSugar).

A jock turned model gets a chance at love in this romantic comedy by Debbie Rigaud.

Who doesn’t want to be a cover girl?

London Abrams’s first love is volleyball, so why does she enter an online modeling competition? Answer: superhottie Brent St. John. London spots Brent signing in contestants at a store, and she gets in line simply to say hi. But she never dreams she’ll make it into the competition!

London’s now up against fourteen hungry fashionistas willing to do whatever it takes to win. All she wants to win is Brent’s heart…but the money prize couldn’t hurt. If London plays this right, she can win the contest, the boy, and the cash. GAME ON!

A slave family is distressed when they discover their son Ben has run away.

Explore the roots of rap in this stunning, rhyming, triple-timing picture book!

A generation voicing

stories, hopes, and fears

founds a hip-hop nation.

Say holler if you hear.

The roots of rap and the history of hip-hop have origins that precede DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Kids will learn about how it evolved from folktales, spirituals, and poetry, to the showmanship of James Brown, to the culture of graffiti art and break dancing that formed around the art form and gave birth to the musical artists we know today. Written in lyrical rhythm by award-winning author and poet Carole Boston Weatherford and complete with flowing, vibrant illustrations by Frank Morrison, this book beautifully illustrates how hip-hop is a language spoken the whole world ’round, it and features a foreward by Swizz Beatz, a Grammy Award winning American hip-hop rapper, DJ, and record producer.

“Reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
—New York Times

• 2020 Winner of The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent
• John Newbery Honor for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature
• 2020 William C. Morris Award Finalist
• A Kirkus Prize Finalist 2019
• William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist 2019
• An NPR Favorite Book of 2019
• A School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book of 2019
• A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019
• Top AALBC Book on the subject of “Colorism”

This deeply sensitive and powerful debut novel tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who is filled with self-loathing and must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself.

There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant—even her own family. And #61: Because her family is always being put out of their house, belongings laid out on the sidewalk for the world to see. When your dad is a gambling addict and loses the rent money every month, eviction is a regular occurrence.

What’s not so regular is that this time they all don’t have a place to crash, so Genesis and her mom have to stay with her grandma. It’s not that Genesis doesn’t like her grandma, but she and Mom always fight—Grandma haranguing Mom to leave Dad, that she should have gone back to school, that if she’d married a lighter skinned man none of this would be happening, and on and on and on. But things aren’t all bad. Genesis actually likes her new school; she’s made a couple friends, her choir teacher says she has real talent, and she even encourages Genesis to join the talent show.

But how can Genesis believe anything her teacher says when her dad tells her the exact opposite? How can she stand up in front of all those people with her dark, dark skin knowing even her own family thinks lesser of her because of it? Why, why, why won’t the lemon or yogurt or fancy creams lighten her skin like they’re supposed to? And when Genesis reaches #100 on the list of things she hates about herself, will she continue on, or can she find the strength to begin again?

A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life—now available as a young reader’s edition!

In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons’ when they were the First Family—and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers.

Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington’s “favored” dower slave. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive.

From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar (along with Kathleen Van Cleve), shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.

With charged intellect and piercing candor, provocative essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon shares his experiences of growing up with racial prejudice and violence both within his own family and in the culture at large.

Kiese Laymon is a fearless writer. In his essays, he filters his personal stories through the full power of his impressive intellect to reflect on American society. But one issue has always evaded his penetrating self-reflection and that was his own abuse, a subject that brought feelings of shame and humiliation. Now he opens himself to this past, confronts these painful memories, and asks us to consider our shared memories as an abusive nation. In “Heavy,” Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body and the collective body of the Black community. He also chronicles his attempt to lose 100 pounds, an effort at which he fails. He speaks to his two aunts, his grandmother, his mother, his father, his mother s ex-boyfriend, and the two women who sexually abused him, as well as to his friends, whose abuse he witnessed, about their relationship with violence, race, trauma, gender, and food.

A personal story that illuminates national issues, “Heavy” is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful exploration that begins with a heartbreaking story of innocence taken and continues through twenty-five years of repeated, haunting implosions, and long reverberations.”

From the first female African American principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre history, Misty Copeland, comes an encouraging guided journal that’s inspired by her New York Times bestselling memoir, Life in Motion.

Misty Copeland has broken down barriers in the world of dance, becoming the first African American female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre. And along the way, she’s always used the art of journaling to remember it all. Now, she’s sharing her passion for writing with you! Featuring prompts, quizzes, motivational quotes, and more, Your Life in Motion—inspired by Misty’s own experiences—will help young readers live their best lives every day!

In an updated and expanded 25th anniversary edition, the beloved “purple book” Acts of Faith guides people of color with daily encouragement, comfort, and enlightenment.

For over a quarter of a century, millions have turned to bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant’s Acts of Faith for insightful and deeply sensitive inspiration that recognizes and explores the unique pressures on people of color today. Each day of the year carries a unique motivational quote or message along with it, as well as a short essay to assist in reflection and wisdom. These messages are pulled from a great variety of spiritual practices and teachings, to appeal to a wide range of faiths and disciplines. Acts of Faith is an invaluable and enduring resource for people of color in search of support as they journey on their unique paths.

This stunning picture book looks into the life of Georgia Gilmore, a hidden figure of history who played a critical role in the civil rights movement and used her passion for baking to help the Montgomery Bus Boycott achieve its goal.

Georgia decided to help the best way she knew how.
She worked together with a group of women and together they purchased the supplies they needed-bread, lettuce, and chickens. And off they went to cook.
The women brought food to the mass meetings that followed at the church. They sold sandwiches. They sold dinners in their neighborhoods.
As the boycotters walked and walked, Georgia cooked and cooked.

Georgia Gilmore was a cook at the National Lunch Company in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus boycotts broke out in Montgomery after Rosa Parks was arrested, Georgia knew just what to do. She organized a group of women who cooked and baked to fund-raise for gas and cars to help sustain the boycott. Called the Club from Nowhere, Georgia was the only person who knew who baked and bought the food, and she said the money came from "nowhere" to anyone who asked. When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for his role in the boycott, Georgia testified on his behalf, and her home became a meeting place for civil rights leaders. This picture book highlights a hidden figure of the civil rights movement who fueled the bus boycotts and demonstrated that one person can make a real change in her community and beyond. It also includes one of her delicious recipes for kids to try with the help of their parents!

National bestselling author Allison Hobbs delivers a powerful novel about a father and son whose relationship is challenged after the son is suspected of crimes in his new neighborhood.

Twelve years ago when Malik Copeland was a hopeless addict, he signed away parental rights to his ten-month-old son, Phoenix, and his ex-wife and new husband adopted him.

Today, Malik is clean and sober and happily married to Sasha. He’s also the proud parent of a baby girl and stepfather to Sasha’s adolescent daughter.

Out of the blue, Malik receives a call from his ex-wife asking if he’d be willing to establish a relationship with his now thirteen-year-old son. Elated to have a second chance, Malik arranges for Phoenix to visit during spring break.

Handsome, well-mannered, and helpful around the house, Phoenix is a joy to be around. When the mini-vacation is over, the happily reunited father and son agree to stay in touch and plan another trip during summer break.

Over the course of the next few months, Malik discovers that Phoenix feels like an outsider with his mother, stepfather, and his two half-siblings. Determined to make up for lost years, Malik wants custody of Phoenix and gears up for a legal battle—but to his surprise, there’s little resistance from his ex-wife and her husband.

Phoenix moves in and the Copelands are one big happy family, and Malik’s life feels complete. But when Sasha complains that Phoenix speaks to her disrespectfully and that he taunts his sisters, Malik wonders if she’s just envious of his close relationship with his son. Taking sides with Phoenix causes fissures in Malik and Sasha’s marriage.

After a rash of break-ins in the quiet neighborhood, people begin to suspect the newcomer, Phoenix. Refusing to accept that Phoenix is to blame, Malik stands by his side. But when a six-year-old girl goes missing and the evidence points to Phoenix, Malik has to ask himself how far he’ll go to protect his own flesh and blood.

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper.

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about HER. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them than ever. And she’s is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?

It seems like nothing can bring Isabella’s family together again—until the worst happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired.

Charlamagne Tha God, New York Times bestselling author of Black Privilege and always provocative cohost of Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, reveals his blueprint for breaking free from your fears and anxieties.

Fear is holding you back. It’s time to turn the tables and channel your fears to actually fuel your success.

Being “shook” is more than a rap lyric for Charlamagne, it’s his mission to overcome. While it may seem like he’s ahead of the game, he is actually plagued by anxieties, such as the fear of losing his roots, the fear of being a bad dad, and the fear of being a terrible husband. Shook One chronicles his journey to beat those fears and shows a path that you too can take to overcome the anxieties that may be holding you back.

Ironically, Charlamagne’s fear of failure—of falling into the life of stagnation or crime that caught up so many of his friends and family in his hometown of Moncks Corner—has been the fuel that has propelled him to success. However, even after achieving national prominence as a radio personality, Charlamagne still found himself paralyzed by anxiety and distrust. Now, in Shook One, he is working through these problems—many of which he traces back to cultural PTSD—with help from mentors, friends, and therapy. Being anxious doesn’t serve the same purpose anymore. Through therapy, he’s figuring out how to get over the irrational fears that won’t take him anywhere positive.

Charlamange hopes Shook One can be a call to action: Getting help is your right. Therapy and showing weakness are not always easy subjects, but if you go to the gym three or four times a week, why can’t you put that same effort and energy into getting mentally strong?

“I know bad things are still going to happen to me. Struggles that I can’t even conceive of today are still going to trip me up from time to time down the road. Cops are still going to pull me over for no reason. I’m still going to worry about my kids. The anxieties are never fully going to go away. In the past, my focus was always on the things that cause stress. Moving forward, its’ going to be on the things that bless.”

From Academy Award�nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis comes the second story in a brand-new series about best friends Shai and Emmie, two third-graders destined for superstardom.

Shai Williams—third-grader and superstar in the making—loves to act, sing, and dance. So when her teacher, Ms. Englert, signs their class up for a major dance competition, Shai’s fancy moves are put to the test. Paired up with her best friend Emmie and classmate Rio, Shai plans to settle her competition jitters by just having fun. That is until her rival, Gabby Supreme, challenges her to a bet: whoever loses the dance competition has to bring the winner one cupcake every day for a month.

Now Shai has to win.

Alice Walker, author of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple—“an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle)—crafts an evocative and intensely emotional collection of poems that chronicle her astonishing life’s journey.

Alice Walker, “one of the best American writers of today” (The Washington Post), presents a timeless collection of over forty new works of passionate and powerful poetry. From painful confessions to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult and liberating world of activism, love, hope, and more. Walker encourages us to harness the divine that is inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she is both a revolutionary and an inspiration to many generations of fans.

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse returns with this revolutionary guidebook filled with the crucial mental strategies that will provide the missing piece in your weight loss journey once and for all.

After helping dieters lose over two-million pounds in two years, JJ Smith realized the most important, yet most overlooked, factor for permanent weight loss is mental mastery. In Think Yourself Thin, Smith helps you uncover the root of your struggle and address the spiritual or emotional issues tied to your eating behavior. By applying the strategies outlined in this book, you will have the tools you need to take control of your weight, and thus your health, and experience the joy of having your dream body.

Divided into four parts, Smith’s book uncovers the five psychological stages required to lose weight and keep it off. Smith also introduces the all-new SUCCESS System detailing the mental habits and approaches necessary for permanent weight loss. Filled with inspiring, motivational success stories and user-friendly principles that provide the guidance you need to eat in a manner that helps the body burn fat and lose weight, Think Yourself Thin makes long-term weight loss a reality by starting with what matters most.

“When Barbara Jordan talked, we listened.” —Former President of the United States, Bill Clinton

Congresswoman Barbara Jordan had a big, bold, confident voice—and she knew how to use it! Learn all about her amazing career in this illuminating and inspiring picture book biography of the lawyer, educator, politician, and civil rights leader.

Even as a child growing up in the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas, Barbara Jordan stood out for her big, bold, booming, crisp, clear, confident voice. It was a voice that made people sit up, stand up, and take notice.

So what do you do with a voice like that?

Barbara took her voice to places few African American women had been in the 1960s: first law school, then the Texas state senate, then up to the United States congress. Throughout her career, she persevered through adversity to give voice to the voiceless and to fight for civil rights, equality, and justice.

New York Times bestselling author Chris Barton and Caldecott Honoree Ekua Holmes deliver a remarkable picture book biography about a woman whose struggles and mission continue to inspire today.

The critically lauded author of The Beast Side and The Cook Up returns with an existential look at life in low-income black communities, while also offering a new framework for how we can improve the conversations about them.

While author D. Watkins is pleased about the number of books exploring issues of race that are being published, there’s one aspect that doesn’t get enough attention: the hood. The Baltimore native knows firsthand what it means to live in poverty, where violence and drugs are inescapable. As he sees it, the perspective of people who live in poor black communities is largely absent from the work of many of the top intellectuals who speak and write about race.

Now, D. Watkins is here to tell his truth. Written like a linear memoir, The Message builds upon his experiences, and eases us into a bigger conversation about race and the various issues affecting poor black neighborhoods in America. Unapologetic and eye-opening, it identifies and addresses a range of issues affecting these low-income communities—such as the trouble with misrepresentation and why we need more than one black voice—and sheds light on the harsh realities of daily life. Additionally, Watkins examines various crucial activist movements, including the Civil Rights Movement, and asks what it means to be a model activist in today’s world.

Through the personal retelling of his journey, Watkins aims to illuminate the lessons he’s learned navigating through two very distinct worlds—the hood and the elite sanctums by the prominent black thinkers and public figures—in hopes of providing actionable solutions.

The New York Times bestselling memoir from the legendary Gucci Mane spares no detail in this “cautionary tale that ends in triumph” (GQ).

For the first time Gucci Mane tells his extraordinary story in his own words. It is “as wild, unpredictable, and fascinating as the man himself” (Complex).

The platinum-selling recording artist began writing his remarkable autobiography in a federal maximum security prison. Released in 2016, he emerged radically transformed. He was sober, smiling, focused, and positive—a far cry from the Gucci Mane of years past.

A critically acclaimed classic, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane “provides incredible insight into one of the most influential rappers of the last decade, detailing a volatile and fascinating life…By the end, every reader will have a greater understanding of Gucci Mane, the man and the musician” (Pitchfork).

In the tradition of Best American Short Stories comes Everyday People: The Color of Life, a dazzling collection of contemporary short fiction.

This gorgeously wrought anthology represents a wide range of styles, themes, and perspectives on a variety of topics. The carefully selected stories depict moments that linger — moments of doubt, crossroads to be chosen, relationships, epiphanies, moments of loss and moments of discovery. A celebration of writing and expression, Everyday People brings to light the rich tapestry that binds us all.

An eclectic mix of award-winning and critically lauded writers, the contributors include: Mia Alvar, Carleigh Baker, Nana Brew-Hammond, Glendaliz Camacho, Alexander Chee, Junot Díaz, Mitchell S. Jackson, Yiyun Li, Allison Mills, Courttia Newland, Dennis Norris II, Jason Reynolds, Nelly Rosario, Hasanthika Sirisena, and Brandon Taylor.

The first comprehensive, authoritative biography of American icon Arthur Ashe—the Jackie Robinson of men’s tennis—a pioneering athlete who, after breaking the color barrier, went on to become an influential civil rights activist and public intellectual.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1943, by the age of eleven, Arthur Ashe was one of the state’s most talented black tennis players. Jim Crow restrictions barred Ashe from competing with whites. Still, in 1960 he won the National Junior Indoor singles title, which led to a tennis scholarship at UCLA. He became the first African American to play for the US Davis Cup team in 1963, and two years later he won the NCAA singles championship. In 1968, he won both the US Amateur title and the first US Open title, rising to a number one national ranking. Turning professional in 1969, he soon became one of the world’s most successful tennis stars, winning the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. After retiring in 1980, he served four years as the US Davis Cup captain and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

In this revelatory biography, Raymond Arsenault chronicles Ashe’s rise to stardom on the court. But much of the book explores his off-court career as a human rights activist, philanthropist, broadcaster, writer, businessman, and celebrity. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ashe gained renown as an advocate for sportsmanship, education, racial equality, and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. But from 1979 on, he was forced to deal with a serious heart condition that led to multiple surgeries and blood transfusions, one of which left him HIV-positive. In 1988, after completing a three-volume history of African-American athletes, he was diagnosed with AIDS, a condition he revealed only four years later. After devoting the last ten months of his life to AIDS activism, he died in February 1993 at the age of forty-nine, leaving an inspiring legacy of dignity, integrity, and active citizenship.

Based on prodigious research, including more than one hundred interviews, Raymond Arsenault’s insightful and compelling biography puts Ashe in the context of both his time and the long struggle of African-American athletes seeking equal opportunity and respect.

Chris Hedges’s profound and provocative examination of America in crisis is "an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard" (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate.

America, says Pulitzer Prize—winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.

Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his "forceful and direct" (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’tat is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. "With a trademark blend of…sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream" (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.

The former Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the Trump White House provides an eye-opening look into the corruption and controversy of the current administration.

Few have been a member of Donald Trump’s inner orbit longer than Omarosa Manigault Newman. Their relationship has spanned fifteen years—through four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account.

A stunning tell-all and takedown from a strong, intelligent woman who took every name and number, Unhinged is a must-read for any concerned citizen.

“A new book by Joan Morgan would be cause for celebration whether it was about Lauryn Hill, Bunker Hill, or ant hills. But for hip hop’s founding feminist and most incisive critic to apply the force of her intellect, the power of her memory, and the dexterity of her cultural mixology to a record so fraught with meaning and misunderstanding makes me feel the way I did the first time I heard the needle drop on ‘Lost Ones.’ In fact, I’m dancing with one fist in the air as I write this."” —Adam Mansbach, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“In this collection, Michael Arceneaux is as vulnerable as he is hilarious, sharp as he is shady, thoughtful as he is THOT-ty. With wit, heart, and keen self-awareness, he allows us to see him in totality and forces us to feel our way through his journey toward contentment, wholeness and reconciliation with faith and family as an unapologetically black, queer and Southern man. I know our patron saint Beyonc� would be proud!” —Janet Mock, New York Times bestselling author of Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty

#1 national bestselling and award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley delivers another moving, evocative, and timely novel about how a small seed of hope can change the course of one’s life.

Savannah Graham thought she had the perfect marriage…until grief drove her husband into the arms of his best friend’s wife. Now, she believes revenge is the only way her heart can heal from the betrayal.

For fifty-two years, Ollie Moss lived side by side with the love of his life, his wife Elizabeth. But now that she’s gone, so is his desire to live, despite the love from his children, and his beloved grandson Samuel. Can anything save Ollie’s life?

Anna Rodriguez just wants to work and provide for her three children by any means necessary. But her decision to break the law in order to get a job is threatening life as she knows it.

Trey Brown is known in his neighborhood as a hustler, so much so that the gangs want him to join their ranks…but there’s a reason the nineteen-year-old does what he does—he’s the only one left who can save his little brother.

Different circumstances lead each of them to The Markham Hotel, where they hope to find solace, comfort, and answers. Told from multiple perspectives, The Book in Room 316 will renew your strength and faith that there is always a way forward.

Husband-and-wife duo James E. Ransome and Lesa Cline-Ransome collaborate to tell the inspiring story of sisters, champion athletes, and tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams.

Venus and Serena Williams. Two peas in a pod. Best friends. Sisters.

Venus and Serena Williams are two of the greatest tennis players of all time. Some say they’re two of the greatest athletes of all time. Before they were world famous, they were little girls with big dreams.

Six days a week they awoke before the sun came up to practice their serves and returns, to learn to run faster and hit harder. They were unstoppable. At age fourteen, Venus played her first professional match. Three years later, it was Serena’s turn. It wasn’t easy. Some tennis fans cheered for these two fresh faces, while those who were unhappy to see two black girls competing in a nearly all-white sport booed and taunted them. But they didn’t let it stop them.

With vibrant mixed media art, nonfiction superstars Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome share the inspirational story of two tennis legends who were fierce competitors on the courts, but close sisters above all.

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Gabrielle Wilson has the perfect life: a Beverly Hills mansion, a loving family, and a massively successful PR firm. When her father admits that an affair he had years before resulted in a daughter, Gabrielle is shocked, but is actually happy. Could this be the sister she has been praying for all her life?

Keisha Jones’s life is a struggle. Her late mother worked on the streets, and school was its own nightmare. When Gabrielle offers to fly Keisha out of Arkansas to meet the family, Keisha instantly agrees. But Gabrielle doesn’t realize that Keisha has known about the Wilsons for years. Keisha is determined to have everything she has always envied, and nothing can stand in her way.

Best friends Shai and Emmie, two third graders destined for superstardom, plan a benefit concert to help stray animals in this third novel in the Shai & Emmie series from Academy Award�nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis.

Shai, Emmie, and the rest of the student orchestra are busy preparing for a benefit concert to help stray pets—a cause near and dear to Shai’s heart. So when she finds a tiny bunny alone in her backyard, Shai is determined to do what her mom would do: rescue the bunny and find it a good home! But the bunny rescue project is far more work than she imagined, and soon Shai doesn’t have any time left to practice for the benefit concert…

This cinematic picture book from critically acclaimed author and illustrator Evan Turk follows the life of a baby whale from birth, to song, to silence, to a new song of compassion and hope for a brighter future.

Two hearts, one song.
A young whale and her mother sing together.
Heartbeat.
Then the mother is gone.
One heart, one song.
The young whale swims, alone and lonely,
for days and years and decades…
until one day a little girl hears her and joins her song.
Together, they sing of hope for a brighter future.
One world, one song,
one heartbeat.

It’s 1969 when fifteen-year-old Huey Fairchild begins his first day at Claremont Prep, one of New York City’s most prestigious boys’ schools. His mother had uprooted her family from their small hometown of Akersburg, Georgia a few years earlier, leaving behind Huey’s white father and the racial unrest that ran deeper than the Chattahoochee River. But forgetting his past is easier said than done. At Claremont, where the only other non-white person is the janitor, Huey quickly realizes that racism can lurk beneath even the nicest school uniform. And after a quick slip of his temper, Huey finds himself on academic probation and facing legal charges. With his promising academic career in limbo, Huey begins examining his current predicament at Claremont through the lens of his childhood memories of growing up in Akersburg during the Civil Rights Movement.

In this captivating new memoir, award-winning writer Jessica B. Harris recalls her youth “surrounded by some of the most famous creative minds of the seventies and eighties…James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Nina Simone” (New York magazine)—in a vibrant, lost era of New York City.

In the Technicolor glow of the early seventies, Jessica B. Harris debated, celebrated, and danced her way from the jazz clubs of the Manhattan’s West Side to the restaurants of Greenwich Village, living out her buoyant youth alongside the great minds of the day—luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. My Soul Looks Back is her tribute to that fascinating social circle and their shared commitment to activism, intellectual engagement, and each other.

With “simmering warmth” (The New York Times), Harris paints evocative portraits of her illustrious friends: Baldwin as he read aloud an early draft of If Beale Street Could Talk, Angelou cooking in her California kitchen, and Morrison relaxing at Baldwin’s house in Provence. Harris describes her role as theater critic for the New York Amsterdam News and editor at then-burgeoning Essence magazine; star-studded parties in the South of France; drinks at Mikell’s, a hip West Side club; and the simple joy these extraordinary people took in each other’s company. At the center is Harris’s relationship with Sam Floyd, a fellow professor at Queens College, who introduced her to Baldwin.

More than a memoir of friendship and first love, My Soul Looks Back is a carefully crafted, intimately understood homage to a bygone era and the people that made it so remarkable.

A masterful story collection—thirteen years in the making—from National Book Award winner Charles Johnson, showcasing the incredible range and resonant voice of this American treasure.

This new collection of stories from National Book Award winner Charles Johnson offers an eclectic, engaging range of narratives, tied together by Buddhist themes and displaying all the grace, heart, and insight for which he has long been known.

In “The Weave,” Ieesha and her boyfriend carry out a heist at the salon from which she has just been fired—coming away with thousands of dollars of merchandise in the form of hair extensions. “Night Hawks,” the titular story, draws on Johnson’s friendship with the late playwright August Wilson to construct a narrative about two writers who meet at night to talk. In “Kamadhatu,” a lonely Japanese abbot has his quiet world upended by a visit from a black American Buddhist whose presence pushes him toward the awakening he has long found elusive. “Occupying Arthur Whitfield,” about a cab driver who decides to rob the home of a wealthy passenger, reminds readers to be grateful for what they have. And “The Night Belongs to Phoenix Jones” combines the real-life story of a “superhero” in the city of Seattle with an invented narrative about an aging English professor who decides to join him.

Spanning genres from science fiction to realism, these stories convey messages of tolerance, hope, and gratitude. With precise, elegant, and moving language, Johnson creates memorable characters and real, human struggles that have the power to enlighten and change us as we read.

An incredibly moving picture book biography of the man behind the hymn “Amazing Grace” and the living legacy of the song Caldecott Honor�winning author Carole Boston Weatherford and award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison.

One stormy night at sea, a wayward man named John Newton feared for his life. In his darkest hour he fell to his knees and prayed—and somehow the battered ship survived the storm.

Grateful, he changed his ways and became a minister, yet he still owned a slave ship. But in time, empathy touched his heart. A changed man, he used his powerful words to help end slavery in England.

Those words became the hymn “Amazing Grace,” a song that has lifted the spirit and given comfort across time and all over the world.

From beloved author Ruth P. Watson comes the latest historical novel following Carrie Parker and her family in 1920s Deep South.
Just as the mystery of the death of her stepfather, Herman Camm, is solved, Carrie Parker realizes that she must choose between her love for her husband and a man she adores.
With Simon, her husband, gone for months as he pursues his dream, Carrie is left alone to wait for his return while Adam begs her to forget about him. Although Carrie may know what he says is true, she can’t forget the happiness she had with Simon when they first met.
Making matters worse, Carrie struggles in her relationship with her son, Robert. He is a fine boy but the spitting image of his father. Whenever she looks into the eyes of her son, she sees her estranged husband and is reminded of how confusing her life has become. Caught between her son, her lover, and her husband, Carrie is forced to make some of the most difficult decisions of her life.

Kids around the world get to school in unique ways. Take a peek inside this book and see how they reach their destinations!

Children all around the world go to school. Whether they’re from Japan, Ukraine, Ethiopia, or the United States, all students have the desire to learn about the world and shape the future. In Bhutan, children walk for three hours to make it to school, and in Pakistan, children travel by rickshaw. Some children in China must climb a heaven ladder, while children in Nepal must walk over a wire bridge. The treks of these students are unique, extraordinary, and even dangerous, and they signify the common determination, perseverance, and sense of adventure shared by young people around the world.

Read along as students from thirteen different nations embark on their journeys to get to school in the morning, and learn about the diverse landscapes and cultures of these countries along the way!

Also available in paperback

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction and Kirkus Prize Finalist

Calling to mind the best works of Paul Beatty and Junot D�az, this collection of moving, timely, and darkly funny stories examines the concept of black identity in this so-called post-racial era.

A stunning new talent in literary fiction, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class in these compelling, boundary-pushing vignettes.

Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. Some are darkly humorous—from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide—while others are devastatingly poignant—a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture.

Thompson-Spires fearlessly shines a light on the simmering tensions and precariousness of black citizenship. Her stories are exquisitely rendered, satirical, and captivating in turn, engaging in the ongoing conversations about race and identity politics, as well as the vulnerability of the black body. Boldly resisting categorization and easy answers, Nafissa Thompson-Spires is an original and necessary voice in contemporary fiction.

Sunny tries to shine despite his troubled past in this third novel in the critically acclaimed Track series from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds.

Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics. They all have a lot of lose, but they all have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Sunny is the main character in this novel, the third of four books in Jason Reynold’s electrifying middle grade series.

Sunny is just that—sunny. Always ready with a goofy smile and something nice to say, Sunny is the chillest dude on the Defenders team. But Sunny’s life hasn’t always been sun beamy-bright. You see, Sunny is a murderer. Or at least he thinks of himself that way. His mother died giving birth to him, and based on how Sunny’s dad treats him—ignoring him, making Sunny call him Darryl, never “Dad”—it’s no wonder Sunny thinks he’s to blame. It seems the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad’s eyes is win first place ribbons running the mile, just like his mom did. But Sunny doesn’t like running, never has. So he stops. Right in the middle of a race.

With his relationship with his dad now worse than ever, the last thing Sunny wants to do is leave the other newbies—his only friends—behind. But you can’t be on a track team and not run. So Coach asks Sunny what he wants to do. Sunny’s answer? Dance. Yes, dance. But you also can’t be on a track team and dance. Then, in a stroke of genius only Jason Reynolds can conceive, Sunny discovers a track event that encompasses the hard hits of hip-hop, the precision of ballet, and the showmanship of dance as a whole: the discus throw. As Sunny practices the discus, learning when to let go at just the right time, he’ll let go of everything that’s been eating him up inside, perhaps just in time.

Nikki Maxwell’s adventures continue in the thirteenth installment in the blockbuster #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series!

A young Muslim girl spends a busy day wrapped up in her mother’s colorful headscarf in this sweet and fanciful picture book from debut author and illustrator Jamilah Tompkins-Bigelow and Ebony Glenn.

A khimar is a flowing scarf that my mommy wears.
Before she walks out the door each day, she wraps one around her head.

A young girl plays dress up with her mother’s headscarves, feeling her mother’s love with every one she tries on. Charming and vibrant illustrations showcase the beauty of the diverse and welcoming community in this portrait of a young Muslim American girl’s life.

In a new short story collection, John Edgar Wideman—the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life—explores subjects from the historical to the imagined, with a cast of fictional and real-life characters as diverse as Frederick Douglass, Jean Michael Basquiat, and his own family.

John Edgar Wideman, lauded throughout his career, is a master at many forms. His latest offering, a collection of complex, charged stories, is a stunning marriage of the personal and historical.

“JB & FD” re-imagines conversations between John Brown, the White antislavery crusader who famously raided Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, the Black abolitionist and orator. “Maps and Ledgers” examines a painful incident in the narrator’s childhood and his relationship with his father. “Williamsburg Bridge” follows a man contemplating suicide. “My Dead” considers the narrator’s departed brother and uncle. These stories are spellbinding narrative reflections on abolitionists and artists, fathers and sons, the bonds of family and the pull of memory.

Wideman’s fiction challenges the boundaries of the form. His stories operate on many levels, weaving together historical fact, imagined conversation, philosophical kernels, and deeply personal vignettes. As a whole, American Histories amounts to more than the sum of its parts, an extended meditation on family, history, and loss. This is Wideman at his best, most emotionally precise, and most intellectually stimulating.

From the award-winning entrepreneur, culture leader, and creator of the BLACK GIRLS ROCK! movement comes an inspiring and beautifully designed book that pays tribute to the achievements and contributions of black women around the world.

Fueled by the insights of women of diverse backgrounds, including Michelle Obama, Angela Davis, Shonda Rhimes, Misty Copeland Yara Shahidi, and Mary J. Blige, this book is a celebration of black women’s voices and experiences that will become a collector’s items for generations to come.

Maxine Waters shares the personal fulfillment of service. Moguls Cathy Hughes, Suzanne Shank, and Serena Williams recount stories of steadfastness, determination, diligence, dedication and the will to win. Erykah Badu, Toshi Reagon, Mickalane Thomas, Solange Knowles-Ferguson, and Rihanna offer insights on creativity and how they use it to stay in tune with their magic. Pioneering writers Rebecca Walker, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Joan Morgan speak on modern-day black feminist thought. Lupita Nyong’o, Susan Taylor, and Bethann Hardison affirm the true essence of holistic beauty. And Iyanla Vanzant reinforces Black Girl Magic in her powerful pledge. Through these and dozens of other unforgettable testimonies, Black Girls Rock! is an ode to black girl ambition, self-love, empowerment, and healing.

Pairing inspirational essays and affirmations with lush, newly commissioned and classic photography, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic and Rocking Our Truth is not only a one-of-a-kind celebration of the diversity, fortitude, and spirituality of black women but also a foundational text that will energize and empower every reader.

The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikely place—Pittsburgh, PA—from the 1920s through the 1950s.

Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays about noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had an impact on American history that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper in the country, urging black voters to switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party and then rallying black support for World War II. It fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues and introduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh was the childhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner; Hall of Fame slugger Josh Gibson—and August Wilson himself. Some of the most glittering figures of the era were changed forever by the time they spent in the city, from Joe Louis and Satchel Paige to Duke Ellington and Lena Horne.

Mark Whitaker’s Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung community and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed by industrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes readers on a rousing, revelatory journey—and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not all bleak.

Bath time is fun! fun! fun! in this playful board book!

Today we had such fun! fun! fun!
But now the day is done! done! done!

After a fun-filled day, it’s time to go home and take a bath! From washing tiny toes and your little nose to making rubber ducky go quack! quack! quack!, bath time is fun! fun! fun!

The rhyming text makes this the perfect read-along story to get little ones excited for bath time.

Learn all about Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors, in this lush picture book from bestselling mother/son duo Surishtha Sehgal and Kabir Sehgal.

Spring is here, and it’s almost time for Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors. Siblings Mintoo and Chintoo are busy gathering flowers to make into colorful powders to toss during the festival. And when at last the big day comes, they gather with their friends, family, and neighbors for a vibrant celebration of fresh starts, friendship, forgiveness, and, of course, fun!

Spanning over 250 years of history, Black Ink traces black literature in America from Frederick Douglass to Ta-Nehisi Coates in this masterful collection of twenty-five illustrious and moving essays on the power of the written word.

Throughout American history black people are the only group of people to have been forbidden by law to learn to read. This unique collection seeks to shed light on that injustice and subjugation, as well as the hard-won literary progress made, putting some of America’s most cherished voices in a conversation in one magnificent volume that presents reading as an act of resistance.

Organized into three sections, the Peril, the Power, and Pleasure, and with an array of contributors both classic and contemporary, Black Ink presents the brilliant diversity of black thought in America while solidifying the importance of these writers within the greater context of the American literary tradition. At times haunting and other times profoundly humorous, this unprecedented anthology guides you through the remarkable experiences of some of America’s greatest writers and their lifelong pursuits of literacy and literature.

The foreword was written by Nikki Giovanni. Contributors include: Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Walter Dean Myers, Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture], Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Terry McMillan, Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, Roxane Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Colson Whitehead.

The anthology features a bonus in-depth interview with President Barack Obama.

The first novel from National Book Award winner and author of Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward, a timeless Southern fable of brotherly love and familial conflict—"a lyrical yet clear-eyed portrait of a rural South and an African American reality that are rarely depicted" (The Boston Globe).

Where the Line Bleeds is Jesmyn Ward’s gorgeous first novel and the first of three novels set in Bois Sauvage—followed by Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing—comprising a loose trilogy about small town southern family life. Described as "starkly beautiful" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), "fearless" (Essence), and "emotionally honest" (The Dallas Morning News), it was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award.

Joshua and Christophe are twins, raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in rural Bois Sauvage, on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. They’ve just finished high school and need to find jobs, but after Katrina, it’s not easy. Joshua gets work on the docks, but Christophe’s not so lucky and starts to sell drugs. Christophe’s downward spiral is accelerated first by crack, then by the reappearance of the twins’ parents: Cille, who left for a better job, and Sandman, a dangerous addict. Sandman taunts Christophe, eventually provoking a shocking confrontation that will ultimately damn or save both twins.

Where the Line Bleeds takes place over the course of a single, life-changing summer. It is a delicate and closely observed portrait of fraternal love and strife, of the relentless grind of poverty, of the toll of addiction on a family, and of the bonds that can sustain or torment us. Bois Sauvage, based on Ward’s own hometown, is a character in its own right, as stiflingly hot and as rich with history as it is bereft of opportunity. Ward’s "lushly descriptive prose…and her prodigious talent and fearless portrayal of a world too often overlooked" (Essence) make this novel an essential addition to her incredible body of work.

This beautiful picture book tells the little-known story of Raven Wilkinson, the first African American woman to dance for a major classical ballet company and an inspiration to Misty Copeland.

When she was only five years old, her parents took her to see the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Raven perched on her crushed velvet seat, heard the tympani, and cried with delight even before the curtain lifted. From that moment on, her passion for dance only grew stronger.

No black ballerina had ever danced with a major touring troupe before. Raven would be the first.

Raven Wilkinson was born on February 2, 1935, in New York City. From the time she was a little girl, all she wanted to do was dance. On Raven’s ninth birthday, her uncle gifted her with ballet lessons, and she completely fell in love with dance. While she was a student at Columbia University, Raven auditioned for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and was finally accepted on her third try, even after being told she couldn’t dance with them because of her skin color.

When she started touring with her troupe in the United States in 1955, Raven encountered much racism in the South, but the applause, alongside the opportunity to dance, made all the hardship worth it. Several years later she would dance for royalty with the Dutch National Ballet and regularly performed with the New York City Opera until she was fifty.

This beautiful picture book tells the uplifting story of the first African American woman to dance for a major classical ballet company and how she became a huge inspiration for Misty Copeland. Theodore Taylor III’s unique, heavy line style of illustration brings a deeper level of fluidity and life to the work, and Misty Copeland’s beautifully written foreword will delight ballet and dance fans of all ages.

From Academy Award�nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis comes the second story in a brand-new series about best friends Shai and Emmie, two third graders destined for superstardom.

Shai Williams—third-grader and superstar in the making—loves to act, sing, and dance. So when her teacher, Ms. Englert, signs their class up for a major dance competition, Shai’s fancy moves are put to the test. Paired up with her best friend Emmie and classmate Rio, Shai plans to settle her competition jitters by just having fun. That is until her rival, Gabby Supreme, challenges her to a bet: whoever loses the dance competition has to bring the winner one cupcake every day for a month.

Now Shai has to win.

“A legendary pair presents a volume of verse worth remembering. An awe-inspiring compilation of poetry and art that will bring readers back again and again.”The Horn Book Magazine
“A joyful and broad reflection of love’s many faces.”Publishers Weekly
“This picture-book poetry collection for children contains a selection of [Giovanni’s] work that celebrates all manner of love, and it is beautifully illustrated by the equally renown Bryan.”Booklist
“The two masters together deliver another powerful addition to their separate, award-winning catalogs.”Kirkus Reviews

Newbery Award honoree Ashley Bryan has hand-selected a dozen of National Book Award winner Nikki Giovanni’s poems to illustrate with his inimitable flourish.

There is nothing more important to a child than to feel loved, and this gorgeous gathering of poems written by Nikki Giovanni celebrates exactly that. Hand-selected by Newbery honoree Ashley Bryan, he has, with his masterful flourish of color, shape, and movement, added a visual layering that drums the most important message of all to young, old, parent, child, grandparent, and friend alike: You are loved. You are loved. You are loved. As a bonus, one page is mirrored, so children reading the book can see exactly who is loved—themselves!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.

Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so then she might get a boyfriend.

None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.

Tiffany can’t avoid being funny—it’s just who she is, whether she’s plotting shocking, jaw-dropping revenge on an ex-boyfriend or learning how to handle her newfound fame despite still having a broke person’s mind-set. Finally poised to become a household name, she recounts with heart and humor how she came from nothing and nowhere to achieve her dreams by owning, sharing, and using her pain to heal others.

By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest, The Last Black Unicorn shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.

Determination meets dance in this middle grade adaptation of the New York Times bestselling memoir by the first female African-American principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre history, Misty Copeland.

As the first female African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has been breaking down all kinds of barriers in the world of dance. But when she first started dancing—at the late age of thirteen—no one would have guessed the shy, underprivileged girl would one day make history in her field.

Her road to excellence was not easy—a chaotic home life, with several siblings and a single mother, was a stark contrast to the control and comfort she found on stage. And when her home life and incredible dance promise begin to clash, Misty had to learn to stand up for herself and navigate complex relationships with her family and the dance world, while pursuing her ballet dreams.

Life in Motion is a story for all the kids who dare to be different, dream bigger, and aspire to break stereotypes in whatever they do.

From the poet, novelist, and cultural icon behind the award-winning and celebrated Broadway play, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, comes an evocative and moving bilingual collection of new and beloved poems.

In this stirring collection of more than sixty original and selected poems in both English and Spanish, Ntozake Shange shares her utterly unique, unapologetic, and deeply emotional writing that has made her one of the most iconic literary figures of our time.

With a clear, raw, and affecting voice, Shange draws from her experience as a feminist black woman in American to craft groundbreaking poetry about pain, beauty, and color. In the bestselling tradition of Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, Wild Beauty is more than a poetry collection; it is an exquisite call to action for a new generation of women, people of color, feminists, and activists to follow in the author’s footsteps in the pursuit of equality and understanding. As The New York Times raves, “Ntozake Shange writes with such exquisite care and beauty that anyone can relate to her message.”

From one of erotica’s hottest authors comes another page-melting novel where lies, infidelities, and unfettered desires beckon you to the edge of your seats, leaving you breathless until the last steamy page.

There’s always a price to pay for passion…

Lies, infidelities, and loads of drama are what three couples—Brenda and Roselle Woods; LaQuandra and Isaiah Lewis; and Krista and Kendall Evans—are holding on to. Each partner is harboring their own sets of resentments and secrets that could destroy the very relationships they’ve professed to want. But each couple’s truths will either bring them closer together, or push them further apart….

Thousands of miles away from home, each couple will embark on a journey like no other. Surrounded by lush tropics, miles of sandy white beach, and emerald-blue waters lies a luxurious couples’ retreat tucked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean known as Passion Island. A privately owned, secluded paradise where couples struggling with emotional and physical intimacy are invited to spend six weeks working toward rekindling the passion in their troubled relationships, rediscovering the true meaning of love, or finally letting go.

And, with the help of renowned sexologist Dr. Gretchen Dangerfield, each couple is pushed beyond their wildest imaginations. Sexual boundaries are challenged. Rules are broken. Truths are confronted. Commitments are questioned. Insecurities are exposed. Relationships are tested. And jealousies arise as each couple is forced to face their obsessions and their deepest, darkest desires. Featuring Cairo’s signature “style that is so raw and graphic” (Allison Hobbs), Passion Island is a gripping and hot exploration of love, sex, and relationships.

Nikki Maxwell’s adventures continue in the twelfth installment in the blockbuster #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series!

In Nikki Maxwell’s newest diary, it’s the countdown to the end of the school year, and Nikki’s juggling some big questions about how she’ll spend her summer. She’s also facing an unexpected crush catastrophe—there’s a new kid interested in Nikki, but the last thing she wants to do is accidentally hurt Brandon! It all comes down to a big decision Nikki has to make, and drama like she’s never faced before!

From Essence bestselling author Curtis Bunn comes a moving novel about a down and out corporate executive whose unexpected encounter with a stranger inspires her to reinvent her life.

Brenda Harris, a former corporate executive in Atlanta, has endured two years of personal tragedies and professional disappointments, and believes the world owes her a break.

One day, she encounters a homeless man who encourages her to look at life differently. She regularly sees this man at one of her daily stops. But she does not realize that he has been closely observing her and, despite his mental illness, is able to forge a deep connection with her in ways that both surprise and inspire her.

She realizes there is a whole world out there for her to experience, and Rodney Bridges, the homeless man, helps her begin her journey of self-discovery by challenging her on their daily walks. The path is difficult, but her time with Rodney opens her up to a new world, a world she had dismissed when she lost her job, her husband left her, and her dear sister died.

Part of her journey moves her to help Rodney. Through meaningful conversation and dedication, she is able to penetrate the emotional wall Rodney built after his own tragic circumstances sent him onto the streets. They become an unlikely duo—encouraging each other to overcome each of their own obstacles…and slowly a new world emerges.

A moving and powerful story about how inspiration can be found in the unlikeliest places, Welcome to My World also reaffirms that the simplest things in life—a conversation with a stranger—can lead to life-changing results.

An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.

A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.

Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

From bestselling author Allison Hobbs comes this explosive and thought-provoking novel about two best friends who struggle to survive the ultimate betrayal and redefine how society views full-figured women.

Plus-size friends Jayla Carpenter and Bailee Evans have been close since college. But despite their physical similarities, the two couldn’t be more different. Bailee is laid-back, happily married, and comfortable in her skin. Jayla, on the other hand, resents the many years that she was fat-shamed and is now obsessed with proving that she is as sexy as skinny chicks. Celebrating her body, she flaunts her extra weight in provocative clothing and enjoys the attention of a long list of random male admirers she meets on a dating site for curvy girls. The fact that her inbox is flooded with requests to hook up affirms Jayla’s opinion that a Rubenesque body type is more appealing than a stick figure.

But Bailee isn’t so sure that Jayla’s love life is as gratifying as she professes. She secretly worries that Jayla will end up getting her heart broken, or worse. Her fears are proven true when Jayla is stood up by her latest romantic interest on Valentine’s Day. Infuriated over the insult, Jayla goes on a man-stealing rampage to prove that she is more attractive and sexier than thin girls. Soon, it becomes clear that no man is off limits, not even her best friend’s husband.

Can a lifelong friendship recover after the ultimate betrayal or are some friends too damaged to keep?

From the coauthor of Salt in His Shoes Deloris Jordan comes a comforting book of prayers collected from faiths and cultures all over the world.

From cultures and countries near and far, this collection of more than twenty poems and prayers selected especially to share with children affirms the wonder and beauty of all things great and small in our world. Whether it be the flowers in spring, the wind and the rain, the wide sunset sky or friends and family who we hold dear, there are many reasons to give thanks for the world we live in.

From Academy Award–nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis comes a story about glitz, glamour, and the most important thing of all—family.

A very talented little girl has a very special night ahead of her. A night where she’ll get to wear a new dress in the most beautiful shade of blue with shoes that match it perfectly. A night where she’ll get to ride in the biggest car she’s ever seen! A night that will, of course, include ice cream.

But most special of all, it will be a night out with her mama.

From Academy Award�nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis comes the first story in a brand-new series about best friends Shai and Emmie, two third graders destined for superstardom.

Shai Williams was born to be a star (or a veterinarian—and maybe a dentist). She attends a special elementary school for the performing arts, and her grandma Rosa and aunt Mac-N-Cheese are both actresses. So Shai is shocked when she doesn’t get the lead role in the third-grade musical. Instead, the part goes to the new girl, Gabby Supreme, who thinks she is better than everyone else.

To add insult to injury, Ms. Gremillion has now asked Shai to help Gabby with the role. Shai reluctantly agrees and enlists Emmie to help, but Gabby isn’t going to make it easy. As opening night draws near, Shai discovers that making a new friend is sometimes like putting on a show—it requires dedication, patience, and lots and lots of practice.

A black mother expresses the many hopes and dreams she has for her child in this powerful picture book masterpiece that’s perfect for gift-giving.

When you are a newborn,
I hold your hand and study your face.
I cradle you as you drift to sleep.
But I know that I will not always
hold your hand;
not the older you get.
Then, I will hold you in my heart
And hope that God holds you in his hands.

“Sing, Unburied, Sing is a road novel turned on its head, and a family story with its feet to the fire. Lyric and devastating, Ward’s unforgettable characters straddle past and present in this spellbinding return to the rural Mississippi of her first book. You’ll never read anything like it.” Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

In Jesmyn Ward’s first novel since her National Book Award-winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi’s past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. Ward is a major American writer, multiply awarded and universally lauded, and in Sing, Unburied, Sing she is at the height of her powers.

Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

Sing, Unburied, Sing grapples with the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power, and limitations, of the bonds of family. Rich with Ward’s distinctive, musical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing is a majestic new work and an essential contribution to American literature.

An Ezra Jack Keats Book Award Winner
A New York Times Best Illustrated Book
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book
A Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner

A picture book celebration of the indomitable Muddy Waters, a blues musician whose fierce and electric sound laid the groundwork for what would become rock and roll.

Muddy Waters was never good at doing what he was told. When Grandma Della said the blues wouldn’t put food on the table, Muddy didn’t listen. And when record producers told him no one wanted to listen to a country boy playing country blues, Muddy ignored them as well. This tenacious streak carried Muddy from the hardscrabble fields of Mississippi to the smoky juke joints of Chicago and finally to a recording studio where a landmark record was made.

Soon the world fell in love with the tough spirit of Muddy Waters. In blues-infused prose and soulful illustrations, Michael Mahin and award-winning artist Evan Turk tell Muddy’s fascinating and inspiring story of struggle, determination, and hope.

Learn all about influential women who changed history in this engaging and colorful board book perfect for trailblazers-in-training!

Paving the way
to a future that’s bright.
Helping the world
with their skills, smarts, and might.

Little trailblazers cause great big changes.

In this follow up to This Little President and This Little Explorer, now even the youngest readers can learn all about great and empowering female trailblazers in history! Highlighting ten memorable women leaders who paved the way, parents and little ones alike will love this girl power primer full of fun, age-appropriate facts and bold illustrations.

A college professor’s romantic relationship with one of her students, who also happens to be her best friend’s son, leads to turmoil among the three in this tale of sex, suspense, and shattered dreams.

Shariece Houston appears to have everything going for her: she’s a successful college professor and has recently found love. The only problem is that she has to keep her relationship a secret since it’s with her student Emjay Fox, who just happens to be her best friend’s son.

Torn between her friendship with her best friend Leandra and her love for Emjay, she must also deal with Myrick, her obsessed, serial killer ex-boyfriend who will do anything to get back the woman he loves.

A tawdry, steamy, and heartpounding tale of love gone wrong, blackmail, scandal, and the secrets lovers tell one another, Harm Done is a riveting and suspenseful romance.

A newbie to the track team, Patina must learn to rely on her teammates as she tries to outrun her personal demons in this follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Ghost by New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds.

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.

Patina, or Patty, runs like a flash. She runs for many reasons—to escape the taunts from the kids at the fancy-schmancy new school she’s been sent to since she and her little sister had to stop living with their mom. She runs from the reason WHY she’s not able to live with her “real” mom any more: her mom has The Sugar, and Patty is terrified that the disease that took her mom’s legs will one day take her away forever. So Patty’s also running for her mom, who can’t. But can you ever really run away from any of this? As the stress builds up, it’s building up a pretty bad attitude as well. Coach won’t tolerate bad attitude. No day, no way. And now he wants Patty to run relay…where you have to depend on other people? How’s she going to do THAT?

The dragon in the closet is such a con: one minute he’s dancing like a goof under sheets and leaving “get well” notes and peppermints when little ones are sick, and the next he’s tracking dirty footprints all over the carpet and eating all the snickerdoodles out of the cookie jar. With him around, there’s always lots of fun—and a whole heap of trouble, especially when he goes invisible, leaving a little boy to answer for his bad behavior.

Colorful illustrations bring to life this adorable tale of a kid who blames sweet surprises and mischievous behavior on an invisible, mysterious guest only he knows exists: the friendly, goofy, troublemaking dragon in his closet. But did the dragon really do it?

There’s a Dragon in My Closet is a funny, engaging salute to mischievous little boys and the imaginary friends that sprinkle giggles and create a few pickles on even the most ordinary days.

In the tradition of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, acclaimed author Richard Jackson and award-winning illustrator Suzy Lee prove you can chase away any grey and gloomy day with just the right attitude, and a little bit of color.

Why spend a rainy day inside? As three children embrace a grey day, they seems to beckon the bright as they jump, splash, and dance outside, chasing the rain away. The day’s palette shifts from greys to a hint of blue, then more blue. Then green! Then yellow! Until the day is a technicolor extravaganza that would make Mary Poppins proud. A joyous homage to the power of a positive attitude.

A scorned woman is determined to expose her ex-lover for the cruel man he is but she has her work cut out for her since he is a globally beloved singer. Will she get her revenge or lose everything? This suspenseful and steamy novel is perfect for fans of Zane and ReShonda Tate Billingsley.

Felicia Spears is the epitome of a woman scorned. Nothing is right in her life since her ex left, and she blames him for all of her misery. It may have been three years since Cooper walked out and left her destitute, but it feels like it was just yesterday. Now that Cooper is a big singing sensation, he’s riding his newfound fame all the way to the top with his second wife, Evelyn, planted firmly by his side.

Felicia has every right to be bitter and angry. In the early days, she made incredible sacrifices to help ensure Cooper’s success. And it seemed the moment his star began to rise, Felicia was replaced. Now, she’s hell-bent on getting what she feels she deserves, especially since that means tearing down Cooper’s new life.

Now at her lowest point, she’s determined to take matters into her own hands. She’ll let the world know Cooper isn’t the perfect man as his songs lead many to believe he is—and finally get her revenge.

From the national bestselling and award-winning ReShonda Tate Billingsley comes this gripping and emotional exploration of the complex bond between mother and daughter.

From the time Brooke Green was seven years old, she has lived with the pain of losing her mother. Her father has done the best job he could in raising her, but a piece of her always felt empty. On the day of her father’s funeral, her grandmother breaks the shocking news: her mother, Sarah, is very much alive. She abandoned her family because she claimed she wasn’t fit for motherhood. After doing some research, Brooke discovers her mother is living in Atlanta, enjoying a great career…and a brand new family. Stunned, Brooke doesn’t know if she wants answers or revenge against the mother who abandoned her. When she meets Sarah’s husband, Tony, Brooke sees the perfect way to make her mother pay. But her plan for revenge just may leave everyone in danger, and end up costing Brooke more than she ever bargained for.

Sixteen-year-old Jericho is awaiting initiation to the Warriors of Distinction, the oldest and most exclusive club in school—but how high a price will he have to pay to belong? Find out in this first novel in Sharon M. Draper’s Jericho Trilogy.

When Jericho is invited to pledge for the Warriors of Distinction, he thinks his life can’t get any better. As the most exclusive club in school, the Warriors give the best parties, go out with the hottest girls, and great grades are a given. When Arielle, one of the finest girls in his class, starts coming on to him once the pledge announcements are made, Jericho is determined to do anything to become a member…

But as the initiation week becomes progressively harrowing, Jericho is forced to make choices he’s not entirely comfortable with. And one member seems to have it in for the sole female pledge in the group…a pledge who will stop at nothing to show she can handle the pressure. But when is she being pushed too far, and when should Jericho and his friends step in and risk losing their places in the pledging process? As Jericho becomes increasingly uneasy, his cousin Joshua breezes through the initiation, never thinking of the consequences, even when the fine line between fun and games, and life and death is crossed.

Jericho, November, Arielle, and their friends must step up big time to prevent a deadly school tragedy in this harrowing conclusion to Sharon M. Draper’s Jericho Trilogy.

Arielle Gresham, disliked and mistrusted by most of the students at her school, has a secret past, an unbelievably complicated present, and a shaky future. But no one knows or cares because she has managed to alienate anyone who could help her. She tries to cope with problems at school, but difficulties at home almost break her spirit.

Then, as the school tries to deal with an outbreak of false fire alarms and a series of thefts, and Arielle discovers that one classmate is addicted to prescription drugs and another is a victim on vicious online bullying. Outward appearances are seldom what they seem to be—everyone is dealing with something, it’s all a matter of how you deal with it, Arielle is figuring out.

But one kid can’t, and as he starts to crack, could he take the school tumbling down with him?

A hero is needed. But what makes a hero?

In this second novel in Sharon M. Draper’s Jericho Trilogy and Coretta Scott King Honor Book, Jericho and November are locked together in pain from the past and fear for the future, and it feels as though there’s no way to escape either.

When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November’s life forever. She’s pregnant and now she’s faced with the biggest decision of her life. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh’s parents take the news? She’s never needed a friend more.

Jericho Prescott lost his best friend when he lost his cousin, Josh, and the pain is almost more than he can bear. His world becomes divided into "before" and "after" Josh’s death. He finds the only way he can escape the emptiness he feels is to quit doing the things that made him happy when his cousin was alive, such as playing his beloved trumpet. At the same time, he begins playing football, where he hopes the physical pain will suppress the emotional agony. But will hiding behind shoulder pads really help? And will his gridiron obsession prevent him from being there for his cousin’s girlfriend when she needs him most?

Taraji’s memoir is smart, funny as hell and full of that good truth—the kind that we could all use to be a bit more honest, to soar a little higher, to dream a bit bigger. How fitting that a book I enjoyed writing, with a woman I truly respect, on topics dear to my heart (Black women in Hollywood, mothering Black boys, being a daddy’s girl, love of the arts, being FEARLESS) .”—Denene Millner

From Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson and bestselling author Deneen Milner, comes an inspiring and funny book about family, friends, the hustle required to make it from DC to Hollywood, and the joy of living in your own truth.

With a sensibility that recalls her beloved screen characters, including Yvette, Queenie, Shug, and the iconic Cookie from Empire, yet is all Taraji, the screen actress writes of her family, the one she was born into and the one she created. She shares stories of her father, a Vietnam vet who was bowed but never broken by life’s challenges, and of her mother who survived violence both in the home and on DC’s volatile streets. Here too she opens up about her experiences as a single mother, a journey some saw as a burden but which she saw as a gift.

Around the Way Girl is also a classic actor’s memoir in which Taraji reflects on the world-class instruction she received at Howard University and the pitfalls that come with being a black actress. With laugh-out-loud humor and candor, she shares the challenges and disappointments of the actor’s journey and shows us that behind the red carpet moments, she is ever authentic. She is at heart just a girl in pursuit of her dreams.

National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin’s 1962 “Letter to My Nephew,” which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: “You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.” Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin’s words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation’s most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin’s essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a “post-racial” society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin’s “fire next time” is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.

“Redefining Realness is a riveting, emotional, crisply written testimony. I couldn’t put it down. I aspire to be as unflinchingly brave! Janet Mock’s story simultaneously embodies, complicates, and subverts the concept of American exceptionalism and self-creation.” —Laverne Cox, actress, advocate, and star of Orange Is the New Black

Discover the unique, profound, and unlikely yet enduring friendship between two of the most prominent and beloved celebrities of all time—Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson—in this “exhaustively researched…consistently absorbing” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) biography.

From the moment Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson met, they were fascinated by one another. He peered into her violet eyes and was transfixed; she, in turn, was dazzled by his talent, intrigued by his sweet-tempered childlike personality, and moved by the stories she had already heard about his troubled early life. Soon a deep friendship blossomed, unlike anything either had ever experienced. Through their various emotional upheavals, the peaks and valleys of their careers, their personal traumas and heartaches, their countless health issues and extreme physical pain, and the glare of the often merciless public spotlight, their love for each other endured.

Award-winning biographer Donald Bogle skillfully re-creates the moving narrative of “these two forces of nature, and digs into the extraordinary histories that made them uniquely suited to understanding each other” (Alan Light, author of Let’s Go Crazy). Through the recollections of friends and acquaintances of the two stars, as well as credited and anonymous sources, Elizabeth and Michael emerges as a tender, intimate look at this famous “odd couple”—and a treasure to their millions of fans.

Superstar comedian and Hollywood box office star Kevin Hart turns his immense talent to the written word by writing some words. Some of those words include: the, a, for, above, and even even. Put them together and you have the funniest, most heartfelt, and most inspirational memoir on survival, success, and the importance of believing in yourself since Old Yeller.

The question you’re probably asking yourself right now is: What does Kevin Hart have that a book also has?

According to the three people who have seen Kevin Hart and a book in the same room, the answer is clear:

A book is compact. Kevin Hart is compact.

A book has a spine that holds it together. Kevin Hart has a spine that holds him together.

A book has a beginning. Kevin Hart’s life uniquely qualifies him to write this book by also having a beginning.

It begins in North Philadelphia. He was born an accident, unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict, beating him with belts, frying pans, and his own toys.

The odds, in short, were stacked against our young hero, just like the odds that are stacked against the release of a new book in this era of social media (where Hart has a following of over 100 million, by the way).

But Kevin Hart, like Ernest Hemingway, JK Rowling, and Chocolate Droppa before him, was able to defy the odds and turn it around. In his literary debut, he takes the reader on a journey through what his life was, what it is today, and how he’s overcome each challenge to become the man he is today.

And that man happens to be the biggest comedian in the world, with tours that sell out football stadiums and films that have collectively grossed over $3.5 billion.

He achieved this not just through hard work, determination, and talent: It was through his unique way of looking at the world. Because just like a book has chapters, Hart sees life as a collection of chapters that each person gets to write for himself or herself.

“Not only do you get to choose how you interpret each chapter, but your interpretation writes the next chapter,” he says. “So why not choose the interpretation that serves your life the best?”

An orphaned boy in contemporary Senegal must decide between doing what is right and what is easy as he struggles to keep a promise he made to his dying father in this captivating debut novel laced with magical realism.

Eleven-year-old Mor was used to hearing his father’s voice, even if no one else could since his father’s death. It was comforting. It was also a reminder that Mor had made a promise to his father before he passed: keep your sisters safe. Keep the family together. But almost as soon as they are orphaned, that promise seems impossible to keep. With an aunt from the big city ready to separate him and his sisters as soon as she arrives, and a gang of boys from a nearby village wanting everything he has—including his spirit—Mor is tested in ways he never imagined. With only the hot summer months to prove himself, Mor must face a choice. Does he listen to his father and keep his heart true, but risk breaking his promise through failure? Or is it easier to just join the Danka Boys, whom in all their maliciousness are at least loyal to their own?

One Shadow on the Wall is about love and loss, family and friendship, and creating your own future—even if it’s hard to do.

From #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries author Rachel Renee Russell comes the second book in an all-new series about Max Crumbly and his daily ups and downs in middle school.

When we last left our hero, Max Crumbly, he had crash-landed on top of a Mighty Meat Monster pizza after taking a late night tumble through the vents at South Ridge Middle School—and he was completely surrounded by three ruthless criminals!

Will Max be shredded to bits like mozzarella cheese on the hard and crunchy pizza crust of doom?

Can his friend and sidekick, computer whiz Erin, help get him out of this sticky situation alive?

In this captivating new memoir, award-winning writer Jessica B. Harris recalls a lost era—the vibrant New York City of her youth, where her social circle included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and other members of the Black intelligentsia. In the Technicolor glow of the early seventies, Jessica B. Harris debated, celebrated, and danced her way from the jazz clubs of the Manhattan’s West Side to the restaurants of the Village, living out her buoyant youth alongside the great minds of the day—luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. My Soul Looks Back is her paean to that fascinating social circle and the depth of their shared commitment to activism, intellectual engagement, and each other. Harris paints evocative portraits of her illustrious friends: Baldwin as he read aloud an early draft of If Beale Street Could Talk, Angelou cooking in her California kitchen, and Morrison relaxing at Baldwin’s house in Provence. Harris describes her role as theater critic for the New York Amsterdam News and editor at then burgeoning Essence magazine; star-studded parties in the South of France; drinks at Mikell’s, a hip West Side club; and the simple joy these extraordinary people took in each other’s company. The book is framed by Harris’s relationship with Sam Floyd, a fellow professor at Queens College, who introduced her to Baldwin. More than a memoir of friendship and first love My Soul Looks Back is a carefully crafted, intimately understood homage to a bygone era and the people that made it so remarkable.

Roxane Gay is one of the most-listened to young cultural observers. She has become an important voice for a generation, writing about the urgent issues of the day, from feminism and modern marriage, to television and police brutality. No matter the topic, her voice is clear, powerful and always honest. How to Be Heard is full of advice that anyone pursuing a creative life will find fascinating and useful: *You can be a writer if you want to (as long as you actually write). *If you’re a woman, gay or a person of colour, there are probably more barriers. Know this. Be relentless any way. Strive for excellence. Learn how to kick the shit out of those barriers but don’t assume every failure is about your identity because it isn’t. *Accept that sometimes cream does rise to the top and hard work will eventually get noticed. *Learn to deal with rejection. You don’t have to like it. The creative life involves rejection far more than acceptance. It’s easier if you can accept that early on. After delving into the writing life, Gay looks at what is required to succeed in any creative endeavour. Woven throughout are her personal anecdotes and insights on using your voice, being heard and knowing how to listen. How to Be Heard is about finding a voice that is uniquely yours and making sure you are heard when it truly matters.

Instant New York Times Bestseller
Charlamagne Tha God—the self-proclaimed “Prince of Pissing People Off,” co-host of Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, and “hip-hop’s Howard Stern”—shares his unlikely success story as well as how embracing one’s truths is a fundamental key to success and happiness.

In his new book, Charlamagne Tha God presents his comic, often controversial, and always brutally honest insights on how living an authentic life is the quickest path to success. Beginning with his journey from the small town of Moncks Corner, South Carolina to his headline grabbing interviews with celebrities like Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Hillary Clinton, he shares how he turned his troubled early life around by owning his (many) mistakes and refusing to give up on his dreams, even after his controversial opinions got him fired from several on-air jobs. Combining his own story with bold advice and his signature commitment to honesty at all costs, Charlamagne hopes this book will give others the confidence to live their own truths.

To catch a thief, the FBI is soliciting the help of someone who could prove to be most lethal…his lover. But the million-dollar question is…whose side is she really on?

Jordan Lei is debonair and smart. Armed with stunning good looks and enough swagger to make the most confident man feel inadequate, he uses his wits and charm to get whatever he wants. So when he sets his eyes on Bianca, she’s no different than any other treasure that he’s ever desired. Equipped with suave and seductive sophistication, Jordan can’t lose when he sweeps Bianca up into a world of espionage and international intrigue. No challenge is too great, no vault too difficult to crack, as Jordan prides himself on accomplishing any mission regardless of how impossible.

Bianca Brooks wants Pleasure Principles to become the premier event planning company that the upper echelon of society calls on when extravagance is a must. After her first steamy encounter with Jordan Lei, her world is transformed from that of a struggling business owner to one of mind-blowing privilege. Sexually enticed, Bianca is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Jordan giving her toe-curling thrills between the sheets. But once she discovers how far Jordan is willing to go to protect his lavish lifestyle, even at the expense of her own life, will Bianca finally snap out of the sexually induced spell he has her under? Or will she stay wrapped up in his web of sex, lies, and deceit?

Early Sunday Morning, a picture book for young children ages 4 to 9, is the first offering from Denene Millner Books, the new children’s line published under Agate’s Bolden imprint in partnership with Denene Millner, the noted parenting authority, editor, and New York Times bestselling author.

Love and family. These are the things that a little girl finds most special about Sunday mornings. Early Sunday Morning follows June, Mommy, Daddy, and brother Troy through their weekend routine as June prepares for a special performance leading the children’s choir at church on Sunday morning.

Readers spend the weekend with June as she collects helpful pieces of advice on how to be less nervous about her big solo. Along the way, she visits the barbershop with Mommy and Troy, gets her hair done by Mommy, receives a special dress from her aunt, and shares her family ritual of getting ready for Sunday morning service. As her special moment approaches, June leans on the support of her whole family, as well as advice from her father, to conquer her fear of singing in front of the congregation.

Early Sunday Morning is a heartwarming celebration of the special time a young girl and her family share together as she learns how to lift her mighty voice.

The harrowing, but triumphant story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leader of the Liberian women’s movement, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first democratically elected female president in African history.

When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the 2005 Liberian presidential election, she demolished a barrier few thought possible, obliterating centuries of patriarchal rule to become the first female elected head of state in Africa’s history. Madame President is the inspiring, often heartbreaking story of Sirleaf’s evolution from an ordinary Liberian mother of four boys to international banking executive, from a victim of domestic violence to a political icon, from a post-war president to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Pulitzer Prize�winning journalist and bestselling author Helene Cooper deftly weaves Sirleaf’s personal story into the larger narrative of the coming of age of Liberian women. The highs and lows of Sirleaf’s life are filled with indelible images; from imprisonment in a jail cell for standing up to Liberia’s military government to addressing the United States Congress, from reeling under the onslaught of the Ebola pandemic to signing a deal with Hillary Clinton when she was still Secretary of State that enshrined American support for Liberia’s future.

Sirleaf’s personality shines throughout this riveting biography. Ultimately, Madame President is the story of Liberia’s greatest daughter, and the universal lessons we can all learn from this “Oracle” of African women.

Shh…look…listen…to the sounds of the dark say Goodnight!

What sails? What flies? Those…these, Down low, nearby, far off, up high.
Who listens? Who looks? Who hears? Who sees?

An homage to the melodies of nighttime, to each critter that sings, hoots, or glows, All Ears, All Eyes takes us on a moonlit journey where the landscape shimmers with Fantasia-like beauty. Where if you look and listen, you might spy an owl, a deer, a chipmunk—or—what else!—before falling asleep.

From the NAACP Image award winner and national bestselling author Victoria Christopher Murray, a novel inspired by the seven deadly sins about a woman caught between an entertainment mogul with a shady past and his childhood friend who is out for revenge.

Tiffanie has lived a sheltered life in a very strict household with her pastor-grandfather and grandmother in Washington, DC. But when she meets Damon King, she falls for the successful entertainment business man despite his history as a drug dealer. Everyone sees nothing but the brightest future for the couple—but there’s one person who wants to destroy them.

Trey Johnson is Damon’s childhood best friend with whom he built quite a successful drug business. But when the game got hot and Damon decided to leave, Trey stayed and continued to sell drugs, until he was arrested and spent seven years in prison.

But now he’s out and able to attend the wedding. While Damon is thrilled to have Trey back and hopes to bring his best friend into his business, Trey has other plans. He blames Damon for his demise and plans to ruin him, even if that means bringing Tiffanie down as well.

Trey is sure he will succeed, but he doesn’t know that there will be deadly consequences. And at the end, there will only be one man standing…

This book is the first to chronicle the lives of African American women in the urban north during the early years of the republic. A Fragile Freedom investigates how African American women in Philadelphia journeyed from enslavement to the precarious status of "free persons" in the decades leading up to the Civil War and examines comparable developments in the cities of New York and Boston. Erica Armstrong Dunbar argues that early nineteenth-century Philadelphia, where most African Americans were free, enacted a kind of rehearsal for the national emancipation that followed in the post-Civil War years. She explores the lives of the "regular" women of antebellum Philadelphia, the free black institutions that took root there, and the previously unrecognized importance of African American women to the history of American cities.

In 2014, protesters ringed the White House, chanting, “How many black kids will you kill? Michael Brown, Emmett Till!” Why did demonstrators invoke the name of a black boy murdered six decades before?

In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional.

The national coalition organized to protest the Till lynching became the foundation of the modern civil rights movement. Only weeks later, Rosa Parks thought about young Emmett as she refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Five years later, the Emmett Till generation, forever marked by the vicious killing of a boy their own age, launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle into a mass movement. “I can hear the blood of Emmett Till as it calls from the ground,” shouted a black preacher in Albany, Georgia.

But what actually happened to Emmett Till—not the icon of injustice but the flesh-and-blood boy? Part detective story, part political history, Timothy Tyson’s The Blood of Emmett Till draws on a wealth of new evidence, including the only interview ever given by Carolyn Bryant, the white woman in whose name Till was killed. Tyson’s gripping narrative upends what we thought we knew about the most notorious racial crime in American history.

Celebrate the life of Lena Horne, the pioneering African American actress and civil rights activist, with this inspiring and powerful picture book from award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford.

You have to be taught to be second class; you’re not born that way.

Lena Horne was born into the freedom struggle, to a family of teachers and activists. Her mother dreamed of being an actress, so Lena followed in her footsteps as she chased small parts in vaudeville, living out of a suitcase until MGM offered Lena something more—the first ever studio contract for a black actress.

But the roles she was considered for were maids and mammies, stereotypes that Lena refused to play. Still, she never gave up. “Stormy Weather” became her theme song, and when she sang “This Little Light of Mine” at a civil rights rally, she found not only her voice, but her calling.

An unorthodox tale of lust and crime focusing on two sisters with aspirations of self-made success; but when loyalty is tested and trust is lost, murder, deceit, and betrayal turn their dreams into a nightmare.
In this suspenseful sequel to Pink Lips, sisters Willow and Kail are back but blood means nothing as the rise to the top becomes their main objective. Treating one another like strangers, they will stop at nothing until the other one is in the ground. Their motives are clear until loved ones rise from the dead and change their plans drastically.
The streets of Philadelphia become a reunion for everyone as Anoki, their estranged wife and mother, rises from the shadows. If that s not a big enough pill for Willow to swallow, then realizing that her first love, Giovanni, and their son, are still alive will make her choke.
Wanting peace for the sake of her son, Willow lets bygones be bygones. Kail, on the other hand, still wants power and the heads of anyone who will get in the way of it. Willow does everything she can to convince Kail to stop her madness, but she won t listen to reason. When Kail gets on Giovanni s hit list for trying to kidnap her nephew, Willow is forced to choose between love and family."

Meet the youngest known child to be arrested for a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963, in this moving picture book that proves you’re never too little to make a difference.

Nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks intended to go places and do things like anybody else.

So when she heard grown-ups talk about wiping out Birmingham’s segregation laws, she spoke up. As she listened to the preacher’s words, smooth as glass, she sat up tall. And when she heard the plan—picket those white stores! March to protest those unfair laws! Fill the jails!—she stepped right up and said, I’ll do it! She was going to j-a-a-il!

Audrey Faye Hendricks was confident and bold and brave as can be, and hers is the remarkable and inspiring story of one child’s role in the Civil Rights Movement.

Mega bestselling author Zane returns to the world of her hugely popular novels Addicted and Nervous in this dark and exhilarating follow-up featuring a beautiful but emotionally damaged pop star desperate and determined to enact revenge on those who have caused her to hide behind her fame.

After fleeing from Atlanta years ago following a traumatic event, Caprice Tatum decides it’s time to return to her roots—only this time, she’s coming back as Wicket, the international pop sensation who’s the very definition of fame and fortune. And while she may be the perfect diva onstage, offstage she’s desperate to finally lay her past to rest. Her plan? Revenge.

The deeper she worms her way into Atlanta’s most elite circles, the more Caprice unravels, putting herself and the few people she trusts at risk, including Jonovan, her childhood crush whose compassion and allure is almost too hot to handle. When her father suggests she see a therapist, Dr. Marcella Spencer, Caprice finally begins to pick up her pieces and find an inner-strength.

But can Caprice truly overcome her past? Or will it drag her even further into darkness?

Bestselling author and journalist Kitty Kelley combines her elegant storytelling with Stanley Tretick’s iconic photographs to transport readers to the 1963 March on Washington, bringing that historic day vividly to life for a new generation.

Martin Luther King Jr. was nervous.

Standing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, he was about to address 250,000 people with what would become known as his "I Have a Dream Speech"—the most famous speech of his life.

This day—August 28, 1963—was a momentous day in the Civil Rights Movement. It was the culmination of years spent leading marches, sit-ins, and boycotts across the South to bring attention to the plight of African Americans. Years spent demanding equality for all. Years spent dreaming of the day that black people would have the same rights as white people, and would be treated with the same dignity and respect. It was time for Martin to share his dream.

A brand-new meal plan that will assist readers with incorporating green smoothies into their everyday routine while developing healthier long-term eating habits and improving their overall health.

More than a weight loss plan, the 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, designed by nutritionist and certified weight-loss expert JJ Smith, became a way of life. Readers reported that they not only shed pounds but they also slept better, thought more clearly, and were in better over-all health, with some adherents, in consultation with their doctor, even moving off medication. As delicious as her green smoothies are, however, the cleanse was designed only to jumpstart a detox and a new approach to eating—it’s not a permanent solution.

In her new book, Green Smoothies for Life, the highly anticipated follow up to the #1 New York Times bestseller 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, Smith presents a way that green smoothies can be incorporated into your daily regimen. With over thirty recipes for everything from hot dinners to desserts and snacks, sixty thoughtfully composed green smoothie recipes, a thirty-day meal plan and the corresponding shopping lists, the book provides you with a step-by-step prescriptive daily regimen that shows you how to eat mindfully and healthily. In addition to green smoothies and color photographs of select recipes, the book includes more than twenty effective methods to detox (which helps fuel weight loss), information on Smith’s DHEMM (Detox, Hormonal Balance, Eat, Move and Mental Mastery) weight loss system, and testimonials from dieters who’ve change their approach to not just food but also life since while following her advice.

Whether you are just starting out on your weight loss journey or already a smoothie convert, Green Smoothies for Life is the essential next step in continuing your pursuit of a healthier lifestyle.

From Charles Johnson a National Book Award winner, Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, and one of America’s preeminent scholars on literature and race comes an instructive, inspiring guide to the craft and art of writing.

An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter, professor, and cartoonist, Charles Johnson has devoted his life to creative pursuit. His 1990 National Book Award-winning novel Middle Passage is a modern classic, revered as much for its daring plot as its philosophical underpinnings. For thirty-three years, Johnson taught and mentored students in the art and craft of creative writing. The Way of the Writer is his record of those years, and the coda to a kaleidoscopic, boundary-shattering career.

Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer. What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world? And how are philosophy and fiction concomitant?

Luminous, inspiring, and imminently accessible, The Way of the Writer is a revelatory glimpse into the mind of the writer, and an essential guide for anyone with a story to tell.

Delve into the minds of several frisky women who are willing to risk it all in the pursuit of pleasure from bestselling author Curtis Bunn.With sensual language and a unique understanding of women, The Secret Lives of Cheating Wives by Curtis Bunn is a gripping novel that reveals the lengths today’s women will go to indulge their deepest desires. The most unlikely of women—God-fearing, child-raising, career-driven, soft-spoken women—are taking risks outside their marriages unlike any time before, a state of affairs that has become an underground movement. Refusing to boast about their extramarital affairs like men, these women keep quiet and yet, the more they engage, the more daring they become—and the more at risk their marriages become, too. With relatable and complex characters, The Secret Lives of Cheating Wives, is more than your typical romance: it strives to explore the psyche of these women and challenges you into understanding their actions, all while enjoying a tense, steamy ride filled with edge-of-your-seat drama.

An award-winning writer traces the life of the father of iconic Civil Rights martyr Emmett Till a man who was executed by the Army ten years before Emmett’s murder. An evocative and personal exploration of individual and collective memory in America by one of the most formidable Black intellectuals of our time.

In 1955, Emmett Till, aged fourteen, traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. Several weeks later he returned, dead; allegedly he whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie, wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. She chose to leave his casket open. Images of her brutalized boy were published widely. While Emmett’s story is known, there’s a dark side note that’s rarely mentioned. Ten years earlier, Emmett’s father was executed by the Army for rape and murder.

In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman searches for Louis Till, a silent victim of American injustice. Wideman’s personal interaction with the story began when he learned of Emmett’s murder in 1955; Wideman was also fourteen years old. After reading decades later about Louis’s execution, he couldn’t escape the twin tragedies of father and son, and tells their stories together for the first time. Author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Wideman brings extraordinary insight and a haunting intimacy to this devastating story.

An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, Writing to Save a Life is completely original in its delivery an engaging and enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons. Wideman turns seventy-five this year, and he brings the force of his substantial intellect and experience to this beautiful, stirring book, his first nonfiction in fifteen years.

It’s a frenemy showdown in the eleventh installment in the blockbuster #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series!

Nikki Maxwell has the worst luck. Of all the schools she could have been assigned to for the student exchange week program, she’s stuck at North Hampton Hills, her arch nemesis MacKenzie Hollister’s new school. Even worse, there might just be someone at NHH who can out-MacKenzie MacKenzie!

At least Nikki can write about every moment of drama in her diary, so readers won’t miss a moment of it.

Can the queen of dorks survive a week at the head CCP’s new school or will it be a dorky disaster?

Join Ziggy and his friends as they solve mysteries, crack codes, and help the community in The Clubhouse Mysteries—now available together in a collectible boxed set!

Best friends Ziggy, Rashawn, Jerome, and Rico decide to form a clubhouse, complete with secret codes, meetings, and special treasures. Join them as they solve mysteries, find their courage and help their community in this fun and heartwarming series!

In The Buried Bones Mystery, the boys build a clubhouse in Ziggy’s backyard, where they uncover a box of bones while digging to bury their secret treasures. But when the boys try to hide their treasures, they’re swept up in a mystery more intriguing—and scary—than anything they could have imagined.

In Lost in the Tunnel of Time, the boys discover their hometown was a stop on the Underground Railroad and are excited to explore the part of the tunnel that is right under their school—but will they find themselves at a dead end?

In Shadows of Caesar’s Creek, Ziggy and the rest of the Clubhouse gang decide to test their courage like the Shawnee youth did during a fun camping trip—but things don’t go quite as planned.

In Space Mission Adventure, Ziggy is hoping to meet some aliens during a space camp tour, and when he discovers a mysterious shiny stone, his wish might actually come true!

Ziggy and his friends rescue an orphaned fawn in The Backyard Animal Show, and are inspired to put on a talent show to raise money for the local wildlife rescue center.

And in Stars and Stripes on Stage, the boys are determined to take home the grand prize at the school talent show—until they meet someone who might need it more.

First ladies of the Baptist church and sworn frenemies Rachel Jackson Adams and Jasmine Cox Larson Bush are stunned to learn they may have more in common than they thought like who’s their daddy in the scandalous new collaboration between national bestselling and award-winning authors ReShonda Tate Billingsley and Victoria Christopher Murray.

A heated American Baptist Coalition election. A murky murder cover-up. An outrageous reality TV show. What in heaven’s name kind of drama will holy rivals Rachel Jackson Adams and Jasmine Cox Larson Bush prominent first ladies of the Baptist church get themselves into next?

Since he first met Jasmine, Rachel’s father Simon Jackson has had a funny feeling about her. She eerily resembles his first teenage love. After doing some digging, Simon makes a shocking revelation Jasmine may be his daughter. Rachel thinks the idea is absurd, but to pacify her ailing father, she sets out to debunk his theory.

When Jasmine discovers what’s going on, she heads to the Jackson Family Reunion in Smackover, Arkansas, in search of the truth. With her sidekick Mae Frances by her side, this big city girl isnt ready for the country or for the over-the-top family that she may have to claim as her own.

Romance, suspense, and murder are at the center of this sequel to the popular Blackberry Days of Summer and An Elderberry Fall that highlight African American life in the 1920s. Nothing seems to change for Carrie Parker. Even as she attempts to move on, her life is still haunted by reminders of the late Herman Camm, the beady-eyed, small man who forever changed the life of her family.

His twin, Kindred, is in town and he is the spitting image of his brother, yet everyone feels he is the opposite of his irresponsible, womanizing twin. He is accepted immediately but Carrie is afraid. Is he actually the dead Herman come back to life? Simon, her husband, thinks she is losing her mind, as he is too busy chasing his dream of being a major Colored League baseball player, but now he is spending less time on the road.

Carrie suspects he knows about her intimate friendship with Adam Murphy, who is spending his spare time in Petersburg, pursuing Carrie as if she is available. There’s more than meets the eye with Kindred, and Carrie’s mother is willing to do whatever she can to help Carrie determine if he really is someone new.

Soon, all the suspicions are satisfied when Kindred’s true identity is revealed. But with a twist no one is expecting, the town is now reeling with an unsolved murder on its hands. Another tantalizing whodunit by Ruth P. Watson, Cranberry Winter is a provocative novel that will keep you guessing until the very end.

From America’s favorite football player turned New York Times bestselling author and morning talk show host here are 18 rules of motivational advice that will inspire you to turn up the heat and go from good to great in pursuit of your personal ambitions.

Pulling from his own life experiences, Michael Strahan details the mix of mental discipline, positive thinking, and sense of play that lead him to a Super Bowl XLII victory as a member of the New York Giants, and later to star alongside Kelly Ripa in the hit daytime talk show Live! with Kelly and Michael. Each of these “Strahan Rules” will guide you step-by-step through developing a work ethic and mental durability that will prime you to achieve your goals and transform your life.

Delivered with his signature wit and wisdom, Strahan’s Rules combine a range of advice, from values he picked up from his father who served in the military to professors who teach on the science of happiness and include:

-Rule #5: Too many of us count ourselves out before we even give ourselves a chance…Do the work. Be excellent. You’ll find your place.
-Rule #11: You can’t change other people, but you can change how you are around them, and sometimes, a lot of times, that’s more than enough.
-Rule #12: Listen to other people, but don’t take their opinions for fact. Have your own experiences. Draw your own conclusions.

Whether you are attempting to achieve your career goals, seeking to better your relationships or simply up your optimism quotient, Wake Up Happy will inspire you.

Also read “Nat Turner’s Mental and Military Motivations” by Ezrah Aharone

This official tie-in to the highly acclaimed film, The Birth of a Nation, surveys the history and legacy of Nat Turner, the leader of one of the most renowned slave rebellions on American soil, while also exploring Turner’s relevance to contemporary dialogues on race relations.

Based on astounding events in American history, The Birth of a Nation is the epic story of one man championing the spirit of resistance as he leads a rough-and-tumble group into a revolt against injustice and slavery.

Breathing new life into a story that has been rife with controversy and prejudice for over two centuries, the film follows the rise of the visionary Virginian slave, Nat Turner. Hired out by his owner to preach to and placate slaves on drought-plagued plantations, Turner eventually transforms into an inspired, impassioned, and fierce anti-slavery leader.

Beautifully illustrated with stills from the movie and original illustrations, the book also features an essay by writer/director, Nate Parker, contributions by members of the cast and crew, and commentary by educator Brian Favors and historians Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Daina Ramey Berry who place Nat Turner and the rebellion he led into historical context. The Birth of a Nation reframes the way we think about slavery and resistance as it explores the passion, determination, and faith that inspired Nat Turner to sacrifice everything for freedom.

Using original slave auction and plantation estate documents, Ashley Bryan offers a moving and powerful picture book that contrasts the monetary value of a slave with the priceless value of life experiences and dreams that a slave owner could never take away.

Imagine being looked up and down and being valued as less than chair. Less than an ox. Less than a dress. Maybe about the same as…a lantern.

You, an object. An object to sell.

In his gentle yet deeply powerful way, Ashley Bryan goes to the heart of how a slave is given a monetary value by the slave owner, tempering this with the one thing that CAN’T be bought or sold—dreams. Inspired by the actual will of a plantation owner that lists the worth of each and every one of his “workers”, Bryan has created collages around that document, and others like it. Through fierce paintings and expansive poetry he imagines and interprets each person’s life on the plantation, as well as the life their owner knew nothing about—their dreams and pride in knowing that they were worth far more than an Overseer or Madam ever would guess. Visually epic, and never before done, this stunning picture book is unlike anything you’ve seen.

His new book Ghost is the start of a series for kids about an inner city track team and the different things they’re running from. It’s inspired by Black Lives Matter and his own childhood in DC:

Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his past is slowing him down in this first electrifying novel of a brand-new series from Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award–winning author Jason Reynolds.

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.

Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all starting with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems—and running away from them—until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who blew his own shot at success by using drugs, and who is determined to keep other kids from blowing their shots at life.

• Castle Crenshaw, aka Ghost’s, life story actually happened to Jason’s best friend. He and his mother were chased by their father at gunpoint, and they had to hide in a 7-11 down the street. Lu, an albino African American character, is also based on a friend of Jason’s.
• The coach is based on Jason’s own coach, a taxi driver who drove kids to practice in the back of his cab.
• Like Ghost, Jason ran track as conditioning for the sport he REALLY cared about – basketball.
• In communities of color, and low-income communities, kids are always running. From sirens, from guns, from their family, from their mom’s discipline. They’re in constant fear. Running isn’t something they’ve had to learn, they’ve just always done it.
• Track is an “individual team” sport. Everyone is competing with themselves (their own scores/times), as well as being part of the team. This mirrors the black experience in the US—everyone has their own individual experiences, but is a part of the larger African American community that is fighting for justice. Truly, everything Jason writes is inspired by that experience and Black Lives Matter.

“An impassioned analysis of headline-making cases .Timely, controversial, and bound to stir already heated discussion.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A thought-provoking and important analysis of oppression, recommended for those seeking clarity on current events.” —Library Journal

Unarmed citizens shot by police. Drinking water turned to poison. Mass incarcerations. We’ve heard the individual stories. Now a leading public intellectual and acclaimed journalist offers a powerful, paradigm-shifting analysis of America’s current state of emergency, finding in these events a larger and more troubling truth about race, class, and what it means to be “Nobody.”

Protests in Ferguson, Missouri and across the United States following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a passionate display of age-old racial frustrations. They unveiled a public chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full freedom and prosperity.

In Nobody, scholar and journalist Marc Lamont Hill presents a powerful and thought-provoking analysis of race and class by examining a growing crisis in America: the existence of a group of citizens who are made vulnerable, exploitable and disposable through the machinery of unregulated capitalism, public policy, and social practice. These are the people considered “Nobody” in contemporary America. Through on-the-ground reporting and careful research, Hill shows how this Nobody class has emerged over time and how forces in America have worked to preserve and exploit it in ways that are both humiliating and harmful.

To make his case, Hill carefully reconsiders the details of tragic events like the deaths of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and Freddie Gray, and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He delves deeply into a host of alarming trends including mass incarceration, overly aggressive policing, broken court systems, shrinking job markets, and the privatization of public resources, showing time and time again the ways the current system is designed to worsen the plight of the vulnerable.

Timely and eloquent, Nobody is a keen observation of the challenges and contradictions of American democracy, a must-read for anyone wanting to better understand the race and class issues that continue to leave their mark on our country today.

In this universally accessible New York Times bestseller named for her wildly popular web series, Issa Rae—“a singular voice with the verve and vivacity of uncorked champagne” (Kirkus Reviews)—waxes humorously on what it’s like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits and black as cool.

I’m awkward—and black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be. That someone was right. Where do I start?

Being an introvert (as well as “funny,” according to the Los Angeles Times) in a world that glorifies cool isn’t easy. But when Issa Rae, the creator of the Shorty Award-winning hit series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, is that introvert—whether she’s navigating love, the workplace, friendships, or “rapping”—it sure is entertaining. Now, in this New York Times bestselling debut collection written in her witty and self-deprecating voice, Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is a book no one—awkward or cool, black, white, or other—will want to miss.

The daughter of an adulterous father deals with the long-rippling effects of his actions in her own love life in this emotionally powerful novel by award-winning and national bestselling author ReShonda Tate Billingsley.

Lauren Robinson knows exactly what it takes to be the perfect mistress. She had a front-row seat when she tagged along with her father on all of his extramarital trysts. She loved keeping Daddy’s special secrets, but many family members, especially her mother, consider her an accomplice in helping break up their family.

Years later, Lauren’s mother, Joyce, whose health is failing, cannot let go of the bitterness caused by her husband s philandering. She continues to blame Lauren, as does Lauren’s brother. Joyce can’t see past her anger and betrayal and has withheld her maternal affection from Lauren for most of her life. This emotional distance and Lauren s early dating experiences lead her to date married men.

That is until Dr. Matthew King enters the scene. Now poised to become a college president, Matthew is a former beau that left Lauren brokenhearted. He tries to show Lauren that he’s a changed man since their college days. The two truly connect and their relationship quickly escalates. When Matthew proposes marriage, Lauren happily accepts, but as their very public engagement makes the news, someone is intent on sabotaging their relationship. Someone who watched her own marriage destroyed by Lauren, and won t be happy until she gives Lauren a taste of her own medicine. Can Lauren stop the cycle of destruction in time to salvage the only love she’s ever known?

From Ezra Jack Keats 2015 New Illustrator Honor recipient Evan Turk comes his debut work as author-illustrator: an original folktale that celebrates the power of stories and storytelling.

Long, long ago, like a pearl around a grain of sand, the Kingdom of Morocco formed at the edge of the great, dry Sahara. It had fountains of cool, refreshing water to quench the thirst of the desert, and storytellers to bring the people together.

But as the kingdom grew, the people forgot the dangers of the desert, and they forgot about the storytellers, too. All but one young boy, who came to the Great Square for a drink and found something that quenched his thirst even better: wonderful stories. As he listened to the last storyteller recount the Endless Drought, and the Glorious Blue Water Bird, he discovered the power of a tale well told.

Acclaimed illustrator Evan Turk has created a stunning multidimensional story within a story that will captivate the imagination and inspire a new generation of young storytellers.

Shortlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing

"A searingly honest and intimate portrait of a captivating icon." —Baxter Holmes, ESPN NBA reporter

Through extensive research and interviews with those closest to Iverson, acclaimed Washington Post sportswriter Kent Babb gets behind the familiar, sanitized, and heroic version of the hard-changing, hard-partying athlete who played every game as if it were his last.

Former NBA superstar Allen Iverson was once one of America’s most famous athletes: a trendsetter who transcended race, celebrity, and pop culture, and emerged from a troubled past to become one of the most successful and highly compensated athletes in the world. Now, his life and career come vividly to light in this "searingly honest" (Baxter Holmes) biography.

Babb brings to life a private, loyal, and often generous Allen Iverson who rarely made the headlines, revealing the back story behind some of Iverson’s most memorable moments, such as his infamous "Practice" rant, delving even deeper to discover where Iverson’s demons lurked. He drank too much, stayed out too late, spent more money than most people could spend in a dozen lifetimes—blowing more than $150 million of his NBA earnings alone.

His then wife Tawanna, seen often as the mild-mannered woman who tamed the bad boy, tried to keep her husband and family on the rails. But, as so many others learned on basketball courts, she was no match for the force of nature that was Iverson. Jealousy, meanness, and relentless eventually wore down even his biggest fans, teammates, and, eventually, even his most formidable opponent.

An exciting account of the international adventures of fashion model Pat Cleveland—one of the first black supermodels during the wild sixties and seventies.

New York in the sixties and seventies was glamorous and gritty at the same time, a place where people like Warhol, Avedon, and Halston as well their muses came to pursue their wildest ambitions, and when the well began to run dry they darted off to Paris. Though born on the very fringes of this world, Patricia Cleveland, through a combination of luck, incandescent beauty, and enviable style, soon found herself in the center of all that was creative, bohemian, and elegant. A “walking girl,” a runway fashion model whose inimitable style still turns heads on the runways of New York, Paris, Milan, and Tokyo, Cleveland was in high demand.

Ranging from the streets of New York to the jet-set beaches of Mexico, from the designer retailers of Paris to the offices of Diana Vreeland, here is Cleveland’s larger-than-life story. One minute she’s in a Harlem tenement making her own clothes and dreaming of something bigger, the next she’s about to walk Halston’s show alongside fellow model Anjelica Huston. One minute she’s partying with Mick Jagger and Jack Nicholson, the next she’s sharing the dance floor next to a man with stark white hair, an artist the world would later know as Warhol. One moment she’s idolizing the silver screen sensation Warren Beatty, years later, she’s deciding whether to resist his considerable amorous charms. In New York, she struggles to secure her first cover of a major magazine. In Paris, she’s the toast of the town. And through the whirlwind of it all, she is forever in pursuit of love, truth, and beauty.

A page-turning memoir of a life well lived, Walking with the Muses is a book you won’t soon forget.

Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series meets Law & Order: SVU in the third installment in the Kink, P.I. series featuring modern-day renaissance man, Dominic Law, whose ability to seamlessly navigate the dark streets and the complexities of the fetish world allow him to solve crimes that no one else can, even at the risk of his own life.

“No one can escape their day of reckoning…not even me.”

After solving two of the more difficult cases of his short P.I. career, Dominic Law feels like the worst might be over. But before he can settle in to take on more routine cases and take a well-deserved rest, a series of intensely brutal homicides occur, making him wonder if someone is truly out to get him.

A series of copycat murders from the previous Roman Numeral case begin to show up in different parts of the city, while another crime scene close to home brings the specter of an old nemesis, hell-bent on revenge. Dominic finds himself in the crosshairs in a race against time to solve the cases before the grim reaper can fulfill a promise in the most explosive installment of the Kink, P.I. series yet.

Can Dominic postpone his reckoning, or will it be too late?

“The Gilded Years is a historical novel based on the true story of Anita Hemmings, the first black woman to graduate from Vassar College in the late 1890s. But because Vassar, at the time, did not admit African Americans, she was able to attend and graduate only by passing as a white woman.

It’s really a page-turner and one that will in large part introduce readers to the life and legacy of Anita Hemmings, who was a real pioneer in her day and beyond. Although Vassar was her dream school and her high degree of intellect alone made her worthy of being a student at the school, her journey was one filled with potential conflict, danger and shame. With each turn of the page, Tanabe leaves the reader brimming with anticipation of whether this will be day that Anita Hemmings is found out? And if so, what next? Is everything she’s worked hard for at Vassar destroyed?

Archives & Special Collections, Vassar College Library

Since childhood, Anita Hemmings has longed to attend the country’s most exclusive school for women, Vassar College. Now, a bright, beautiful senior in the class of 1897, she is hiding a secret that would have banned her from admission: Anita is the only African-American student ever to attend Vassar. With her olive complexion and dark hair, this daughter of a janitor and descendant of slaves has successfully passed as white, but now finds herself rooming with Louise “Lottie” Taylor, the scion of one of New York’s most prominent families.

Though Anita has kept herself at a distance from her classmates, Lottie’s sphere of influence is inescapable, her energy irresistible, and the two become fast friends. Pulled into her elite world, Anita learns what it’s like to be treated as a wealthy, educated white woman—the person everyone believes her to be—and even finds herself in a heady romance with a moneyed Harvard student. It’s only when Lottie becomes infatuated with Anita’s brother, Frederick, whose skin is almost as light as his sister’s, that the situation becomes particularly perilous. And as Anita’s college graduation looms, those closest to her will be the ones to dangerously threaten her secret.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Gilded Age, an era when old money traditions collided with modern ideas, Tanabe has written an unputdownable and emotionally compelling story of hope, sacrifice, and betrayal—and a gripping account of how one woman dared to risk everything for the chance at a better life.

Meet Max Crumbly in this series from #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries author Rachel René​e Russell!

Max Crumbly is about to face the scariest place he’s ever been: South Ridge Middle School.

There’s a lot that’s great about his new school, but there’s also one big problem—Doug, the school bully whose hobby is stuffing Max in his locker. If only Max could be like the hero in his favorite comics. Unfortunately, Max’s uncanny, almost superhuman ability to smell pizza from a block away won’t exactly save any lives or foil bad guys.

But that doesn’t mean Max won’t do his best to be the hero his school needs!

When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires—literally—in this piercing middle grade novel by the winner of the Coretta Scott King � Johnson Steptoe Award.Genie’s summer is full of surprises. The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia—in the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. Thunderstruck and—being a curious kid—Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he covers it so well (besides wearing way cool Ray-Bans). How does he match his clothes? Know where to walk? Cook with a gas stove? Pour a glass of sweet tea without spilling it? Genie thinks Grandpop must be the bravest guy he’s ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house—as in NEVER. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into—a room so full of songbirds and plants that it’s almost as if it’s been pulled inside-out—he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all. Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. It’s his fourteenth birthday, and, Grandpop says to become a man, you have to learn how to shoot a gun. Genie thinks that is AWESOME until he realizes Ernie has no interest in learning how to shoot. None. Nada. Dumbfounded by Ernie’s reluctance, Genie is left to wonder—is bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you won’t do?

Award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford’s innovative history in verse celebrates the story of the Tuskegee Airmen: pioneering African-American pilots who triumphed in the skies and past the color barrier.

I WANT YOU! says the poster of Uncle Sam. But if you’re a young black man in 1940, he doesn’t want you in the cockpit of a war plane. Yet you are determined not to let that stop your dream of flying.

So when you hear of a civilian pilot training program at Tuskegee Institute, you leap at the chance. Soon you are learning engineering and mechanics, how to communicate in code, how to read a map. At last the day you’ve longed for is here: you are flying!

From training days in Alabama to combat on the front lines in Europe, this is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the groundbreaking African-American pilots of World War II. In vibrant second-person poems, Carole Boston Weatherford teams up for the first time with her son, artist Jeffery Weatherford, in a powerful and inspiring book that allows readers to fly, too.

Soft kittens, wooly socks, soggy mittens, fleecy flocks—this pictorial celebration of things tactile explores how what we touch touches us.

There’s a reason why toddlers put everything (or so it seems) into their mouths—it’s how they understand it…with grabby hands, open mouths, and…here…open book.

In Take a Look, Says Book fleas seem to hop off one page, peas squish bean-bag flat on the next. The images seemingly come to life, just as so much comes to life within our imaginations through reading, and handling things with just the right touch.

From legendary editor Richard Jackson and phenomenally talented illustrator Kevin Hawkes, Have a Look, Says Book is a sweet celebration of the ways we discover new things, through touch, through books.

A library card unlocks a new life for a young girl in this picture book about the power of imagination, from Nobel Prize�winning author Toni Morrison.

On one gray afternoon, Louise makes a trip to the library. With the help of a new library card and through the transformative power of books, what started out as a dull day turns into one of surprises, ideas, and imagination!

Inspired by Pulitzer Prize�winning author Toni Morrison’s experience working in a library as a young girl, this engaging picture book celebrates the wonders of reading, the enchanting capacity of the imagination, and, of course, the splendor of libraries.

Find your most rewarding place in today’s economy. Award-winning author, researcher, and analyst Farai Chideya offers a practical guide to the ways in which work in America is changing and how you can navigate today’s volatile job market.

Since the Great Recession of 2007�2009, America’s work landscape has changed dramatically. Many people experienced long-term unemployment that eroded their savings, and the globalized economy means that not just jobs but entire career tracks are created and destroyed in front of our eyes. We’re living in an age of rapid disruption where we can barely adjust to one new reality before a new new reality comes along.

So how are we supposed to live a rewarding life—working fulfilling, stable jobs that also cover our monthly expenses—in such a chaotic economy?

In The Episodic Career, Farai Chideya explores the landscape of employment in America. Profiling the rich, the poor, and people from every strata in between, Chideya seeks to understand the many kinds of work we do—for example, not just job fields, but whether we seek to build institutions or seek social change while earning money. In addition, Chideya provides a self-diagnostic tool to help you find your work/life “sweet spot.” You’ll see how different types of people have navigated their careers and forged their own paths even in times of hardship. As a young reporter at Newsweek, CNN, and ABC, Chideya realized that her working-class Baltimore childhood and factors like Ivy League education affected how people viewed her, and she takes a frank look at stereotypes, employment discrimination, and how to create healthy workplaces. Ultimately, she asks how we as a country can sustain the American Dream.

Knowledge of the workplace is power over your career. The Episodic Career provides the big-picture vision of the world economy, as well as the particulars of salary, family, health, and lifestyle that you need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Go deeper into the fetish community of Atlanta originally brought to you in Shakir Rashaan’s Obsession—the first book in the Kink, P. I. series—as Detective Dominic Law navigates the grit of the streets to solve crimes that have crossed over the line of outrageously erotic…

“What the eyes see, and the ears hear, the mind believes…”

Dominic Law is a modern-day Renaissance man, with a plethora of techniques and skills at his disposal. His first couple of cases as a private investigator taught him that everything…and everyone…is not what it seems. His latest cases are no less complicated. One involves a murdered submissive, leading his firm to weed out the real killer from among five jilted lovers—and dominants—with an ax to grind. But will someone unexpectedly plunge the case deeper into confusion? The other investigation brings to surface an issue that is at the center of debate in the fetish community: consent.

Deception takes you back to the streets and dungeons of Atlanta’s fetish community, twisting the cases to their final conclusions and guiding you through the minds of the principal players of Kink, P.I.

From New York Times bestselling author and beloved Today show co-anchor Hoda Kotb—inspiring stories of people who find their life’s purpose in unexpected ways, often surprising themselves and the ones they love.

Most of us wonder what we’re doing. We float around in the glass half-empty, gaze out into the world of possibilities, and wonder if we should get off of our raft and climb out. Maybe even today you asked yourself: Is it too late to do that thing that made me so happy when I was young? Could what matters most to me finally be the center of my life? Can I really trust this yearning voice in my head and longing in my heart? Do I feel like I’m where I belong?

In this incredible collection of stories, Hoda Kotb writes about individuals who realized their path in life was either veering off in a completely new direction or was getting too far off course from where they knew they belonged. By following their passions, their gut, and their heart, these people learned how fulfilling life could truly feel. From the investment banker who became a minister after years of working on Wall Street, to the young woman from a blue-collar background whose passion took her to Harvard Medical School, to the high-powered PR exec who found herself drawn to a pioneering residential community, to a “no-kids” guy who now helps children all over the world, the stories in Where They Belong come from an array of ordinary individuals who have discovered the power of embracing change or fighting for a dream. Hoda also interviews celebrities, such as producer Mark Burnett and actress/producer Roma Downey, comedienne Margaret Cho, and former boxer Laila Ali, all who’ve pursued their passions to find fulfillment.

With examples of perseverance, self-reflection, and new attitudes on life, Where They Belong is a motivating and inspirational look at exploring and finding the right path for your personal journey.

When a young woman seeking fame and fortune falls into a con artist’s trap, she learns what Hollywood is really all about…and what really matters most.

Skye Taylor is a na�ve, attractive nineteen-year-old, who wants to get as far away from her small Kansas hometown as possible. She coerces a soldier from a nearby army base to marry her, but soon finds out that she’s in a marriage from hell. With very little money, Skye leaves her husband and sets off for Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.

Things may be looking up for Skye when she has a chance meeting with well-dressed, well-manicured Rico Tillman, who is enthralled with her beauty and offers to manage her career. But what Skye doesn’t know is that Rico, if that’s his real name, is the head of a local car-theft ring. One day police stop Skye while she is dropping off one of Rico’s cars. She uses her one phone call to contact Rico, who has already disappeared.

Skye’s life spirals out of control. She is black-listed before her acting career really takes off. And during this traumatic moment in her life, she realizes she misses her family. After everything she’s been through, Skye considers returning home, but that spark—that desire to be a part of the entertainment business—is still there. Could one more bad decision cost Skye her life?

When a terminally ill man is at a crossroads, one choice will make him feel more alive than ever.

Calvin Jones has finally gotten his life on the right course. At forty-five, he has escaped a toxic long-term relationship with the mother of his only child, and he loves his job as a high school English teacher in Washington, DC. Life is good. But then life turns horribly bad. A routine checkup reveals a cancerous spot on his pancreas. The oncologist offers him chemotherapy in the hope that it will extend his life, but Calvin declines…and decides to live the best he can while he can.

Seize the Day is more than the story of Calvin Jones’s decision to pass on cancer treatment. It is the inspiring story of a man choosing not to wait on death and, instead, to live out his life with courage, hope, and resilience. What happens next is extraordinary.

In her next heart-pounding novel of passion, danger, temptation, and adventure, New York Times bestselling author Sister Souljah returns to the story of Midnight.

Handsome, young, Muslim, and married to two women living in one house along with his mother, Umma, and sister, Naja: can Midnight manage? He is surrounded by Americans who don’t share or understand his faith or culture, and adults who are offended by his maturity, intelligence, or his natural ability to make his hard work turn into real money. He is calm, confident, and cool, Ninja-trained and powerful, but one moment of rage throws this Brooklyn youth into a dark world of dirty police, gangs, guns, drugs, prisons, and prisoners. Everything he ever believed, every dollar he ever earned, and all of the women he ever loved including his mother are at risk.

Will his manhood be taken, broken, or altered? Can he maintain his faith among the heathens? Outnumbered, overruled, and deeply envied how can he possibly survive? Will the streets convert him? What can he keep? What must he lose? In this heart-pounding adventure, thriller, and intense narrative, Sister Souljah has penned her most passionate and engrossing novel to date. Raw and uncompromising, her storytelling highlights and ignites the ongoing struggle of young men worldwide, to more than survive, but to live strong, to earn, to have the right to love and protect their families, to receive justice, and to be free.

In the spirit of Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, this powerful memoir by writer and activist Kevin Powell vividly recounts the horrific poverty of his youth, his struggles to overcome a legacy of anger, violence, and self-hatred, and his journey to be a man and a voice for others.

Driven by his single mother’s dreams for his survival and success, Kevin Powell became the first in his family to attend a university, where he became a student leader keenly aware of widespread social injustice. But the struggle to define himself and break out of poverty continued into adulthood, with traumatic periods of homelessness and despair. As a young star journalist with Vibe magazine, Powell interviewed luminaries such as Tupac Shakur, writing influential chronicles of the evolution of hip-hop from his eyewitness view. Now, with searing honesty, Powell examines his troubled relationships, his appearance on MTV’s first season of The Real World, his battles with alcohol and depression, his two campaigns for Congress, and the uplifting trip to Africa that renewed his sense of personal mission. Finally, Powell embarks on a search for the father he never really knew in a redemptive passage from abandonment to self-discovery.

A striking memoir by a child of post-Civil Rights America, The Education of Kevin Powell gives eloquent testimony to the power of the soul to heal.

Discover the surprising secrets that will help you lose weight fast and keep it off—without dieting or exercise—with this #1 national bestseller from the author of the healthy living bible, 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse!

Want to lose weight without counting calories, starving yourself, or giving up your favorite foods? Would you like to look and feel younger and healthier than ever without crash diets or exhausting exercise? Then this book is for you! JJ Smith’s breakthrough weight-loss solution can help you shed pounds fast by detoxifying your body, balancing your hormones, and speeding up your metabolism. You’ll learn how toxins slow your metabolism and why sugar and starch hinder permanent weight loss. You’ll also come to a keen understanding of which foods help you stay slim and which foods cause you to get fat so you can finally get off the rollercoaster ride of weight loss/weight gain and stay slim for life!

You will learn how to:
-Detoxify your body for fast weight loss
-Drop pounds and inches fast, without grueling workouts or starvation
-Lose up to fifteen pounds in the first three weeks
-Shed unwanted fat by eating foods you love, including carbs
-Get rid of stubborn belly fat
-Eat foods that give you glowing, radiant skin
-Use green smoothies to detox
-Trigger your six fat-burning hormones to lose weight effortlessly
-Eat so you feel energetic and alive every day
-Get physically active without exercising

In a bonus chapter, JJ provides an all-new green smoothie recipe and tips for using her famed 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse to jump start the healthier eating and weight loss plan outlined in Lose Weight Without Dieting or Working Out. This is your last stop on the way to a new fit and healthy you! Create your best body—NOW!

“In James E. Ransome’s realistic pastel portraits, Battle, his family and his teachers all seem lit from within.” —The New York Times Book Review

“An ongoing success story for all readers and especially Ailey’s worldwide legion of fans.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A boy discovers his passion for dance and becomes a modern hero in this inspiring picture book biography of Robert Battle, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

When Robert Battle was a boy wearing leg braces, he never dreamed he’d study at Juilliard. Though most dancers begin training at an early age, it wasn’t until Robert was a teenager that his appreciation for movement—first from martial arts, then for ballet—became his passion. But support from his family and teachers paired with his desire and determination made it possible for Robert to excel. After years of hard work, the young man who was so inspired by a performance of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations became the artistic director of the very company that motivated him. Today, under Robert’s leadership, Alvin Ailey continues to represent the African American spirit through dance.

Featuring illustrations brimming with vibrant color and swirling motion, this biographical picture book from husband-and-wife team James Ransome and Lisa Cline-Ransome includes a foreword from Robert Battle himself as well as a bibliography, suggested further reading, and an author’s note.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was founded in 1958 by choreographer Alvin Ailey. He envisioned a company dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience. When Mr. Ailey began creating dances, he drew upon his “blood memories” of his home state of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel inspiration, which resulted in the creation of his most popular and critically acclaimed work, Revelations. Since its founding, the company has performed in seventy-one countries on six continents. It’s repertory includes works by Mr. Ailey and ninety other choreographers, and new works are commissioned each year. Judith Jamison succeeded Mr. Ailey as artistic director, and in 2011, she selected Robert Battle to be her successor. Learn more at AlvinAiley.org.

Three national bestselling authors join talents in a multi-dimensional novel that illustrates the importance of love, family, and forgiveness.

After a lifetime of womanizing, making babies, and then disappearing and taking no responsibility for his actions, Amos Davis has finally reached an impasse—literally crashing his car down a one-way street. It may be the only road to redemption for the aging musician, now afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, for it has brought together the three daughters he abandoned. But when it comes to their deadbeat dad, their hearts may already be sealed…

Cass, the child of Amos’s mistress, has had enough heartache, from losing her mother to the tragic end of her marriage. Amos was never there for her—why should this talented cake maker be sweet to him now?

Toya, always the “other woman” in her affairs with married men, was deeply scarred by Amos’s public denial of her existence years ago. Will seeing him again send her further down a troubled path?

A gifted writer, Tomiko channels her pain into her stories of the father she never knew. In her imagined world, she is safe—but will she ever risk her heart on real love?

A powerful interplay of memory and reality, this emotionally taut novel weaves the voices of three authors to deliver an unforgettable tale of one man’s struggle to make peace with his failures, his family and the destinies of those who must forgive to move forward with their own lives and dreams.

In this seminal music memoir, Father of Funk George Clinton talks four decades of hit songs, drug abuse, the evolution of pop, rock, and soul music, his legal pitfalls, and much much more.

George Clinton began his musical career in New Jersey, where his obsession with doo-wop and R&B led to a barbershop quartet—literally, as Clinton and his friends also styled hair in the local shop—the way kids often got their musical start in the ’50s. But how many kids like that ended up playing to tens of thousands of rabid fans alongside a diaper-clad guitarist? How many of them commissioned a spaceship and landed it onstage during concerts? How many put their stamp on four decades of pop music, from the mind-expanding sixties to the hip-hop-dominated nineties and beyond?

One of them. That’s how many.

How George Clinton got from barbershop quartet to funk music megastar is a story for the ages. As a high school student he traveled to New York City, where he absorbed all the trends in pop music, from traditional rhythm and blues to Motown, the Beatles, the Stones, and psychedelic rock, not to mention the formative funk of James Brown and Sly Stone. By the dawn of the seventies, he had emerged as the leader of a wildly creative musical movement composed mainly of two bands—Parliament and Funkadelic. And by the bicentennial, Clinton and his P-Funk empire were dominating the soul charts as well as the pop charts. He was an artistic visionary, visual icon, merry prankster, absurdist philosopher, and savvy businessmen, all rolled into one. He was like no one else in pop music, before or since.

“Candid, hilarious, outrageous, [and] poignant” (Booklist), this memoir provides tremendous insight into America’s music industry as forever changed by Clinton’s massive talent. This is a story of a beloved global icon who dedicated himself to spreading the gospel of funk music.

In an unforgettable new novel from award-winning authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.

A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?

But there were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.

Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.

"Readers don’t have to have ever heard Bryan’s unforgettable, theatrical recitation of "My People" or other Hughes poems to understand the depth of the artist’s appreciation of and admiration for Hughes and his poetry: he opens the poems up visually here in the same way that he opens them auditorily when he performs them live. Like Hughes, Bryan, at 91, can also boast, ’I’m still pulling.’" -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

New York Times Bestseller

The only self-help book you’ll ever need, from a psychiatrist and his comedy writer daughter, who will help you put aside your unrealistic wishes, stop trying to change things you can’t change, and do the best with what you can control—the first steps to managing all of life’s impossible problems.

Here is the cut-to-the-chase therapy session you’ve been looking for!

Need to stop screwing up? Want to become a more positive person?
Do you work with an ass? Think you can rescue an addicted person?
Looking for closure after abuse? Have you realized that your parent is an asshole?
Feel compelled to clear your name? Hope to salvage a lost love?
Want to get a lover to commit? Plagued by a bully?
Afraid of ruining your kid? Ready to vent your anger?

In this brilliantly sensible and funny book, a Harvard-educated shrink and his comedy-writing daughter reveal that the real f-words in life are “feelings” and “fairness.” While most self-help books are about your feelings and fulfilling your wildest dreams, F*ck Feelings will show you how to find a new kind of freedom by getting your head out of your ass and yourself onto the right path toward realistic goals and feasible results. F*ck Feelings is the last self-help book you will ever need!

A revelatory and redemptive memoir from Beverly Johnson, the first black supermodel to grace the cover of Vogue, and who, over five hundred magazine covers later, remains one of the most successful glamour girls ever.

In The Face That Changed It All, Beverly Johnson brings her own passionate and deeply honest voice to the page to chronicle her childhood growing up as a studious, and sometimes bullied, bookworm during the socially conscious, racially charged ’60s. Initially drawn to a career in law due to the huge impact the Civil Rights movement had on her life, Beverly eventually made her mark as the first black cover model of American Vogue in 1974. A successful three-decade career in modeling followed.

Offering glamorous tales about the hard partying of the 1970s and Hollywood during the ’80s and early ’90s, Johnson details her many encounters and fascinating friendships with the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Halston, Calvin Klein, and Andy Warhol, as well as stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Jack Nicholson, Keith Richards, and Warren Beatty. But not everything that glitters is gold, and Johnson’s memoir reveals the countless demons she wrestled with over the course of her storied career. She brings us into the heart of her struggles with racism, drug addiction, divorce, and a prolonged child custody battle over her daughter that tested her fortitude and sanity. She shares for the first time intimate details surrounding her love affair with the late tennis icon Arthur Ashe, giving little known insight into the heart, mind, and spirit of the revered tennis legend. She also pays homage to her mentor, the late Naomi Sims, while lifting the veil off the complicated, catty, and often times tense relationships between black models during her fashion heyday. Familiar names from the catwalk, such as Pat Cleveland and Iman, appear regularly in her story, illustrating how each had to fight various battles to survive not just the system at large, but each other.

Featuring gorgeous, never-before-seen photos from Johnson’s childhood and modeling days, The Face That Changed It All gives a no-holds-barred look at the lives of the rich, fabulous, and famous. It is also a story of failure and success in the upper echelons of the fashion world, and how Beverly Johnson emerged from her struggles smarter, happier, and stronger than ever.

In Bed Stuy, New York, a small misunderstanding can escalate into having a price on your head—even if you’re totally clean. This gritty, triumphant debut that Publishers Weekly calls “a funny and rewarding read” captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.

A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing.

Nah, not his thing. Ali’s got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there’s a dude looking for trouble—and, somehow, it’s always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy’s gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it’s all small potatoes; it’s not like anyone’s getting hurt.

And then there’s Needles. Needles is Noodles’s brother. He’s got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It’s cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn’t mean anything by it.

Yeah, it’s cool…until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be…somewhere they never should’ve been—where the people aren’t so friendly, and even less forgiving.

Shad Myers, the lovable bartender and town sleuth of Largo Bay, hunts down clues to a woman’s mysterious disappearance in this fourth riveting novel in the Shad detective series.

Shannon, a photojournalist on assignment for a Canadian magazine, arrives in the impoverished but beautiful fishing village of Largo Bay, Jamaica. But she’s seeking more than a tropical paradise: She wants to know why a Canadian woman named Katlyn went missing there more than three decades ago.

So she calls on Shad—“bartender by trade, investigator by vocation, and unofficial sheriff of Largo Bay” (Publishers Weekly)—for help. Together, they delve into Rastafarian life and history while preparations are being made for Shad’s wedding and the groundbreaking of his new hotel. But the deeper they get into the story, the deeper they get into trouble. And it’s clear that whoever wanted Katlyn buried all those years ago will do anything to keep the truth buried as well…

As in her previous novels The Sea Grape Tree, The Man Who Turned Both Cheeks, and The Goat Woman of Largo Bay, Gillian Royes transports readers into a beautiful Caribbean setting where life is cheap but religion is strong, and one man is still trying to solve the island’s relentless questions.

It’s up to a famous rapper, a biologist, and a rogue soldier to handle humanity’s first contact with an alien ambassador—and prevent mass extinction—in this novel that blends magical realism with high-stakes action.

After word gets out on the Internet that aliens have landed in the waters outside of the world’s fifth most populous city, chaos ensues. Soon the military, religious leaders, thieves, and crackpots are trying to control the message on YouTube and on the streets. Meanwhile, the earth’s political superpowers are considering a preemptive nuclear launch to eradicate the intruders. All that stands between 17 million anarchic residents and death is an alien ambassador, a biologist, a rapper, a soldier, and a myth that may be the size of a giant spider, or a god revealed.

An AALBC.com Bestselling Book for May/June 2015

When her son is in trouble, a heartbroken mother finds the courage and faith to save him, in ReShonda Tate Billingsley’s powerful family drama—a novel as timely as today’s headlines.

The breaking TV news rocks Jasper, Texas, to the core: a white police officer is fatally shot in a scuffle with three black youths—and a cellphone video captures Jamal Jones, the sixteen-year-old son of esteemed Reverend Elton Jones, escalating the tragic encounter. Now, as the national spotlight shines on a town already rife with racial tension, Jamal is a murder suspect on the run. And all of Jasper—even the Reverend’s congregation—rushes to judge the boy they thought they knew.

But Gloria Jones knows her son best, and she races to find Jamal before the law does—to the outrage of her workaholic husband. Once she finds him, she has to decide whether to turn him in or help him run. With ruthless prosecutor and Houston mayoral candidate Kay Christensen hungering to put another young thug behind bars, Gloria will face her biggest battle yet. And when long-hidden secrets and shocking lies come to light, throwing Jamal’s case and his destiny into a tailspin, all Gloria can do is pray that the truth—and a mother’s unconditional love—will be enough to redeem the mistakes of the past and ultimately, save her son.

The long-awaited memoir of seven-time Grammy-nominated artist Charlie Wilson, the iconic R&B and Funk singer-songwriter-producer—interwoven with his recollections of collaborating with fellow artists such as Stevie Wonder, the Rolling Stones, and Snoop Dogg.

Recognized the world over for his distinct voice and timeless hits spanning a career of nearly half a century, Charlie Wilson is one of the most celebrated musicians of his generation. So it took friends and family by surprise when he checked into rehab and revealed that he had been not only homeless, but also helpless.

Here, in the memoir fans have been demanding, is the story of how love and faith carried him through not only his addiction, but also prostate cancer. Here, too, is the story of his work in the music business, including a career resurgence that saw collaborations with some of the most sought-after artists of today, including Pharrell and Justin Timberlake.

Now over twenty years sober, Wilson recounts a life filled with vertiginous highs and heartbreaking lows. His is a story of triumph over adversity, courage in the face of extreme hardship, and love when all else is lost. It is a tale of the last sixty years in social and pop culture history, and one that will stay with you for years to come.

Sophia tries varied techniques to get the giraffe she wants more than anything in this playfully illustrated story about the nuances of negotiation.

Sophia has one true desire for her birthday. But she has Four Big Problems in the way: Mom, Dad, Uncle Conrad…and Grand-mama.

Will her presentations, proposals, and pie charts convince them otherwise?

Turns out, all it takes is one word.

For fans of the Nubian Underworld series, this first book in the gritty, new Kink, P.I. series introduces former APD detective Dominic Law who knows one thing for certain: you can never predict who or what might turn up next.

“Hate me or love me, I get results…”

When Dominic Law left the force for a more lucrative offer to run a friend’s private security firm, he thought that his days of suffering as a police detective were over, and he could finally sit back, relax, and take the cases that he wanted, when he wanted.

Was he ever wrong.

Before he can settle into his cushy new office and flirt with his sexy secretary, Dominic finds himself entangled in the politics and rules that he thought he had left behind. A sexy detective assigned to the first case keep his eyes and hands full, while another case unexpectedly reunites him with a former partner who never forgave him for leaving the force…and for leaving her.

From the lustful scenes within the fetish and swingers’ nightclubs, to the relentless heat of the streets that he used to walk as a rookie cop, Dominic is determined to solve the cases in a libidinous underworld where the rules are different, and where nothing—and no one—is as they seem.

From the AALBC.com bestselling and award-winning author Victoria Christopher Murray comes Stand Your Ground, a new novel about two women who are faced with the same tragedy.

A black teenage boy is dead. A white man shot him. Was he standing his ground or was it murder?

Janice Johnson is living every black mother’s nightmare. Her seventeen-year-old son was murdered and the shooter has not been arrested. Can the D.A. and the police be trusted to investigate and do the right thing? Should Janice take advantage of the public outcry and join her husband alongside the angry protestors who are out for revenge?

Meredith Spencer is married to the man accused of the killing and she sees her husband and the situation with far more clarity than anyone realizes. What she knows could blow the case wide open, but what will that mean for her life and that of her son? Will she have the courage to come forward in time so that justice can be done?

#1 national bestselling and award-winning author Victoria Christopher Murray’s Stand Your Ground is a pulse-pounding meditation on race, motherhood, marriage, and vigilante justice that will have readers spellbound until its shocking end.

Filled with scandalous situations and unexpected twists, this sequel to The Joneses follows the eponymous family as secrets are revealed and drama leads to dangeror maybe even death.

The Joneses’ world is turned upside down as their family life comes under public scrutiny. But now, matriarch Lexi Jones is no longer concerned with “status.” Will she be able to withstand the recent tragedy or resign to watching her world crumble around her? Meanwhile, Charity, Hope, and Lovie must put aside sibling rivalry to find out who killed an ex-family friend. When the killer is revealed, they are all in for the shock of their lives…and the end result could mean life or death for the Joneses.

As loose ends are tied up, even more scandals and secrets are exposed. Once again, family drama doesn’t disappoint in The Aftermath: The Joneses 2the book that give new meaning to “keeping up with the Joneses” and will have you eager for more.

The nationally bestselling author of Good Hair and The Itch pens her first book of nonfiction, a “momoir” about her own journey caring for aging parents, raising children, being married, plunging to the depths of depression, and climbing her way out.

My mother was gone. I never thought I would survive her death.

A major bestselling novelist and former magazine editor, long married to a handsome and successful stockbroker with whom she has a beautiful daughter and son, Benilde Little once had every reason to feel on top of the world. But as illness, the aging of her parents, and other hurdles interrupted her seemingly perfect life, she took a tailspin into a pit of clinical depression.

Told in her own fearless and wise voice, Welcome to My Breakdown chronicles a cavern of depression so dark that Benilde didn’t know if she’d ever recover from what David Foster Wallace called “a nausea of the soul.” She discusses everything from her Newark upbringing, once-frequent visits to a Muslim mosque, and how it felt to date a married man, to her doubts about marriage, being caught between elder care and childcare, and ultimately how she treated her depression and found a way out.

Writing in the courageous tradition of great female storytellers such as Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, and Pearl Cleage, Benilde doesn’t hold back as she shares insights, inspiration, and intimate details of her life. Powerful, relatable, and ultimately redemptive, Welcome to My Breakdown is a remarkable memoir about the power within us all to rise from despair and to feel hope and joy again.

In this shocking memoir from a former corrections officer, Gary Heyward shares an eye-opening, gritty, and devastating account of his descent into criminal life, smuggling contraband inside the infamous Rikers Island jails.

Gary Heyward’s life changed forever when he received a letter from the New York City Department of Corrections announcing he was accepted into the academy for new recruits. For the Harlem-born ex-Marine, being an officer of the law was the ticket he’d been waiting for to move up from a low-wage security job and out of the Polo Ground Projects in New York City—and take his mother with him.

Heyward was warned of the temptations he’d encounter as a new officer, but when faced with financial hardship, he suddenly found himself unable to resist the income generated from selling contraband to inmates. In his distinctive voice, Heyward takes you on a journey inside the walls of Rikers Island, showing how he teamed up with various inmates and other officers to develop a system that allowed him to profit from selling drugs inside the jail.

Corruption Officer is a jarring exposé of a man having lived on both sides of the law, a rare insider’s look at a corrupt city jail, and a testament to the lengths we’ll go when our backs are against the wall.

Secrets abound in this scintillating, drama-fuelled novel about a love triangle between a multi-millionaire baseball star, his wife, and the groupie who’s trying to ruin their marriage—if a long-held secret doesn’t destroy it first.

Cheryl Blanton is married to a superstar baseball player who has won three Gold Gloves and recently signed a $120 million, five-year contract with the New York Yankees. He’s wealthy and handsome, and all the groupies are after him, but Cheryl is gorgeous and her sex game has her man on lock. There’s just one little secret she’s been keeping from him: her husband doesn’t realize that she’s nine years his senior. And so far Cheryl’s had no problem hiding her age—her husband only has eyes for her. That is, until twenty-one-year-old Sexy Sanchez comes on the scene.

Sexy blatantly goes after Cheryl’s man, and a series of catfights ensue between them. Cheryl realizes she’s in the battle of her life to keep her man and plots to get rid of her nemesis. But when she hires a private investigator to dig up some dirt on Sexy, she discovers that getting rid of her rival might not be easy, and could also reveal some devastating secrets she’d rather keep to herself…

New York Times bestselling author Zane shares the lessons she’s learned over the years about successful book publishing, filmmaking, and TV production.

Drawing on decades of experience as a mega-bestselling novelist, successful publisher, and executive producer of two TV shows, Zane offers practical advice on writing and publishing to aspiring writers across all media, including books, TV, and film. With her signature wit and straightforward style, Zane tells it like it is, emphasizing hard work, discipline, and commitment as the keys to a successful writing career.

Part One covers the writing and creative process, including how to define your writing style, how to outline a story, how to develop characters, typical mistakes to avoid, writing for your medium, and the revision process. Part Two covers the book publishing process, from finding a literary agent who best understands your work, to getting your work in the hands of publishers, to building an audience for your work. Zane also shares wisdom from her early years as a self-published author for those seeking an alternative to traditional publishing.

Infinite Words isn’t just a reference guide; it’s an essential companion for writers facing the unique challenges and opportunities of today’s ever-evolving world.

Baby drama and political scandal don’t mix in this sequel to Suzetta Perkins’s Behind the Veil.

Margo Myles is getting ready to give birth to twins, but she isn’t sure who the father is—her soon to be ex-husband, Jefferson Myles, or her one-time fling, Malik Mason. Malik is running for a state senate seat and no one is going to take the sweet smell of victory from him.

Ivy Myles, Margo and Jefferson’s eldest daughter, is moving back home. She’s been estranged from her parents, but a new love calls her back—and her love is none other than Malik Mason. Malik intends to make Ivy his wife, but will she be a distraction on his way to the senate?

Scandal and politics always seem to make perfect bedfellows. And Malik Mason must decide which woman he loves more, mother or daughter, or risk ruining everything.

There are some secrets that are better left that way… In this gripping novel of twisted moral dilemmas, a man tries to save his troubled marriage by taking a trip to Napa Valley after secretly winning the lottery.

Paul Wall’s marriage is in trouble. In addition to losing his job, he loses all of his self-esteem, and soon his wife, Ginger, is as unhappy as he is. However, when Paul wins millions of dollars in the Georgia state lottery, he concocts a master plan to regain his wife’s love.

A passionate wine drinker, Paul convinces Ginger to accompany him on a trip to romantic Napa Valley, but Paul keeps his winnings a secret; he wants to win her back on his own merits. Ginger insists her mom, a recent widow, travels with them. Paul then insists his mom, recently divorced, joins them. This quartet of characters travels together to California and, with the influx of wine loosening their inhibitions, they end up revealing secrets better left untold.

With controversial ethical dilemmas at its heart, The Truth is in the Wine is a remarkable and riveting novel that will put you in the characters’ shoes, wondering what you’d do next if you had millions of dollars to spend and a marriage and relationships to save.

In this “taut, smart international thriller” (Tananarive Due, American Book Award winner), a Kenyan expat finds her American dream marred by child trafficking, scandal, and a problematic past that will force an end to her life of privilege.

Mugure and Zack seem to have the picture-perfect family: a young, healthy son, a beautiful home in Riverdale, New York, and a bright future. But one night, as Mugure is rummaging through an old drawer, she comes across a piece of paper with a note scrawled on it—a note that calls into question everything she’s ever believed about her husband…

A wandering curiosity may have gotten the best of Mugure this time as she heads down a dangerous road that takes her back to Kenya, where new discoveries threaten to undo her idyllic life. She wonders if she ever really knew the man she married and begins to piece together the signs that were there since the beginning. Who was that suspicious man who trailed Zack and Mugure on their first date at a New York nightclub? What about the closing of the agency that facilitated the adoption of their son?

Through a striking, beautifully rendered story, The Fall of Saints tackles realistic political and ethical issues head-on. This “fast-paced and urgent read that forces us to consider one of the worst human rights violations of our time” (asha bandele, author of The Prisoner’s Wife) will tug at your heart and keep it racing until the end.

An award-winning national bestseller, Walking with the Wind is one of our most important records of the American Civil Rights Movement. Told by John Lewis, who Cornel West calls a "national treasure," this is a gripping first-hand account of the fight for civil rights and the courage it takes to change a nation.

In 1957, a teenaged boy named John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama for Nashville, the epicenter of the struggle for civil rights in America. Lewis’s adherence to nonviolence guided that critical time and established him as one of the movement’s most charismatic and courageous leaders. Lewis’s leadership in the Nashville Movement—a student-led effort to desegregate the city of Nashville using sit-in techniques based on the teachings of Gandhi—set the tone for major civil rights campaigns of the 1960s. Lewis traces his role in the pivotal Selma marches, Bloody Sunday, and the Freedom Rides. Inspired by his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis’s vision and perseverance altered history. In 1986, he ran and won a congressional seat in Georgia, and remains in office to this day, continuing to enact change.

The late Edward M. Kennedy said of Lewis, "John tells it like it was…Lewis spent most of his life walking against the wind of the times, but he was surely walking with the wind of history."

A New York Times and Washington Post Bestseller

In this timely and important collection of personal essays, black men from all walks of life share their inspiring stories and ultimately how each, in his own way, became a source of hope for his community and country.

Reach includes forty first-person accounts from well-known men like the Rev. Al Sharpton, John Legend, Isiah Thomas, Bill T. Jones, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Talib Kweli, alongside influential community organizers, businessmen, religious leaders, philanthropists, and educators. These remarkable individuals are living proof that black men are as committed as ever to ensuring a better world for themselves and for others.

Powerful and indispensable to our ongoing cultural dialogue, Reach explodes myths about black men by providing rare, candid, and deeply personal insights into their lives. It’s a blueprint for better community engagement. It’s an essential resource for communities everywhere.

Proceeds from the sale of Reach will go to BMe Community, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building caring and prosperous communities inspired by black men. Reach is also a Project of the Kapor Center for Social Impact, one of the founding supporters of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

Reggie Love is a unique witness to history, whose introduction to Washington was working in Junior Senator Barack Obama’s mailroom. As body man to Obama during his first presidential campaign, Love’s job was to stay one step behind the candidate, but think and act three steps ahead during a typical eighteen-hour workday. As President Obama’s personal aide during that momentous first term, Love sat yards from the Oval Office and often spent more time with the President than anyone else. While his experiences were unique, the lessons he learned during his tenure with the President are universal. Persistence. Responsibility. Passion for a cause greater than yourself. In short, maturity. Love has been singularly lucky in his mentors. At Duke University, where he was a walk-on and a captain of its fabled basketball team, Love learned from Coach Krzyzewski that sports builds character—from President Obama, Love learned that how you conduct your life defines your character. Accountability and serving with honor were learned during unsought moments: co-coaching with Malia Obama’s and Sasha Obama’s basketball team with the President; lending Obama his tie ahead of a presidential debate; managing a personal life when no hour is truly your own. From his first interview with Senator Obama, to his near-decision not to follow the President-elect to the White House, Love drew on Coach K’s teachings as he learned to navigate Washington. But it was while owning up to (temporarily) losing the President’s briefcase, playing pick-up games in New Hampshire to secure votes, babysitting the children of visiting heads of state, and keeping the President company at every major turning point of his historic first campaign and administration, that Love learned how persistence and passion can lead not only to success, but to a broader concept of adulthood. Power Foward is a professional coming of age story like no other.

Hip-hop’s favorite poet and Grammy Award�winning artist J. Ivy bares his soul in this inspirational memoir of pain transformed into healing and empowerment.

J. Ivy is a true pioneer and trendsetter who’s bridged the worlds of hip-hop and poetry through his appearances on HBO’s Def Poetry and his collaborations with Kanye West and Jay-Z. But throughout his success, he carried with him the pain of being abandoned by his father and growing up in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side.

So he sat down with pen and paper and processed his pain the only way he knew how—through poetry. The resulting poem, Dear Father, became his vehicle of forgiveness and healing. It is a pivotal poem that has touched and inspired the lives of millions.

Fused with his signature raw lyricism and street consciousness, J. Ivy’s memoir shows what it takes to deal with your emotions before your emotions deal with you. His story is personal yet universal, and will inspire others to channel whatever pain they have experienced into their own powerful gift of expression.

Tai, Nevada, and Candace—who cherish their sisterly bond of exotic vacations, ladies nights, and unbreakable camaraderie—reunite in this dramatic sequel to The Next Phase of Life.

A savvy entrepreneur and happily married woman, Tai Wilson’s life couldn’t be more complete. But just when she’s getting comfortable in her new lifestyle, she starts to suspect that someone is stalking her, attempting to make her world miserable. Or is her mind playing tricks on her? When things go awry, Tai’s intuitive sidekick, Nevada, a successful Washington, DC-based detective who took down a pair of bank robbers, offers to assist. But even the seasoned sleuth is in for a shock when she discovers who the culprit is…

Meanwhile, fashionista Candace has been enjoying her boyfriend and patiently waiting for that permanent diamond on her finger. Once the ultimate pursuer of adventurous men, she was swept away by Don, a pilot who took her all over the world. But despite these pleasurable heights, she becomes disenchanted. Something is amiss and she can’t figure out what’s keeping him single. So like with Tai, Nevada’s efforts lead to the ultimate truth.

Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this “vivid, satisfying, and ultimately upbeat tale of grief, redemption, and grace.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. Crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy stuff than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away.

When the Ku Klux Klan’s unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella’s segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era tour de force from Sharon Draper, the New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind. Stella lives in the segregated South—in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community—her world—is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.

In this instant New York Times bestseller, Misty Copeland makes history as the only African American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious thirteen-year-old to become a groundbreaking ballerina.

When she discovered ballet, Misty was living in a shabby motel room, struggling with her five siblings for a place to sleep on the floor. A true prodigy, she was dancing en pointe within three months of taking her first dance class and performing professionally in just over a year: a feat unheard of for any classical dancer. But when Misty became caught between the control and comfort she found in the world of ballet and the harsh realities of her own life (culminating in a highly publicized custody battle), she had to choose to embrace both her identity and her dreams, and find the courage to be one of a kind.

Life in Motion is an insider’s look at the cutthroat world of professional ballet, as well as a moving story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life.

"It’s fun to play on the dark side, but if you’renot careful, you can—and will—be seduced into betraying the ones you hold mostdear. No one is immune—not even me."

The opening of the latest addition to theKemet-Ka empire, the�Isle ne Bin-bener—the Island of Evil Pleasures—comes with all of theextravagant amenities and devices that anyone with an appetite for exquisitepleasure can imagine.

As Ramesses and Neferterri welcome the resort guests to theisland, the first night promises to be filled with debauchery and uniqueexperiences that push the envelope of sexual discovery. Each locale reveals anexciting revelation, culminating in a fetish rendition of the legendary Nightof a Thousand Lashes.

Despite the indulgences, no one could possibly see the stormon the horizon…

In�Tempest, Shakir Rashaan delivers an explosive tale unlike any other inthe series, where temptations arise, loyalties are tested, and the seduction ofboth the Lord and Lady of the House of Kemet-Ka threaten to tear apart a unionthat no one ever thought could be torn asunder.

Winner BCALA Literary Fiction Book Award

“Lalita Tademy has done it again—Citizen’s Creek is a deep, touching novel of great historical import and lyrical beauty. At the heart of this book is a headstrong family living both as free blacks as well as Muscogee-speaking Creek. We learn the history of a people: one in constant battle to protect both their lands and freedoms, their loves and loved ones—and ultimately, the quest for their inheritance and birthright as Americans—in the greatest, truest sense of the word.”—ZZ Packer

The New York Times bestselling author of the Oprah Book Club Pick Cane River brings us the evocative story of a once-enslaved man who buys his freedom after serving as a translator during the American Indian Wars, and his granddaughter, who sustains his legacy of courage.Cow Tom, born into slavery in Alabama in 1810 and sold to a Creek Indian chief before his tenth birthday, possessed an extraordinary gift: the ability to master languages. As the new country developed westward, and Indians, settlers, and blacks came into constant contact, Cow Tom became a key translator for his Creek master and was hired out to US military generals. His talent earned him money—but would it also grant him freedom? And what would become of him and his family in the aftermath of the Civil War and the Indian Removal westward?

Cow Tom’s legacy lives on—especially in the courageous spirit of his granddaughter Rose. She rises to leadership of the family as they struggle against political and societal hostility intent on keeping blacks and Indians oppressed. But through it all, her grandfather’s indelible mark of courage inspires her—in mind, in spirit, and in a family legacy that never dies.

Written in two parts portraying the parallel lives of Cow Tom and Rose, Citizens Creek is a beautifully rendered novel that takes the reader deep into a little-known chapter of American history. It is a breathtaking tale of identity, community, family—and above all, the power of an individual’s will to make a difference.

After making a promise to leave the street life behind, a shocking revelation forces Animal back into the game to face his greatest opponent yet.

When Animal’s former lover, Red Sonja, shows up on his doorstep with a little girl, claiming Animal is the father, he and Gucci immediately fear it’s a ploy for money. But Red Sonja has come to collect a debt of a different kind, one that can only be paid in blood. A powerful man is hunting Red Sonja and her daughter, Celeste, and she calls on Animal to stop him, permanently.

Animal is forced to break the promise he made to his wife upon his release from prison and once again picks up his guns. To keep his daughter and her mother safe, Animal sets out on a mission of murder, but this isn’t just any man Red Sonja has sent him after, it’s one of the most powerful drug dealers in the country…her father.

Right out of college, Justin Simien wrote a screenplay about the nuanced experiences of four black students on a predominantly white college campus. The film, Dear White People, garnered a Sundance Award for “Breakthrough Talent” and has been hailed by critics everywhere. Channeling the sensibility of the film into this book, Simien will keep you laughing with his humorous observations, even if you haven’t seen the satiric film.

News Flash—the minimum number of black friends needed to not seem racist has just been raised to two. Rather than panic, readers are advised to purchase a copy of Dear White People. Whether you are a dear white person wondering why your black office mate is avoiding eye contact with you after you ran your fingers through her hair, or you’re a black nerd who has to break it to your white friends that you’ve never seen The Wire, this myth-busting, stereotype-diffusing guide to a post-Obama world has something for you!

With decision-making trees to help you decide when it’s the right time to wear Blackface (hint: probably never) and quizzes to determine whether you’ve become the Token Black Friend™, Dear White People is the ultimate silly-yet-authoritative handbook to help the curious and confused navigate racial microaggressions in their daily lives.

Based on the eponymous, award-winning film, which has been lauded as “a smart, hilarious satire,” this tongue-in-cheek guide is a must-have that anybody who is in semi-regular contact with black people can’t afford to miss!

Award-winning author Angela Johnson and illustrator Scott Fischer take you inside the mind of a spunky girl and the imaginative world she lives in with this delightful story now available as a Classic Board Book!

Lottie Paris may be precocious, but she still knows how to act like a kid. She dresses up, plays on the slide, and prefers to eat cookies instead of vegetables. She has a great imagination and sees the possibilities in the simplest pleasures. Plus, she’s sassy, so there’s no chance of getting bored.

Join Lottie Paris in her world and you’ll never look at yours the same again!

Nikki Maxwell’s favorite fairy tales get dork-tastic twists in the eighth book of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series! After a bump on the head in gym class on April Fool’s Day, Nikki has a wild dream in which she, her BFFs Chloe and Zoey, her crush Brandon, and mean girl Mackenzie all end up playing the roles of some familiar classic fairy tale characters. Of course, the stories don’t go quite as expected because they each have a very special Dork Diaries spin! The Dork Diaries series has more than 13 million copies in print worldwide!

A heartfelt, and riveting biography of the short life of a talented young African-American man who escapes the slums of Newark for Yale University only to succumb to the dangers of the streets—and of one’s own nature—when he returns home.

When author Jeff Hobbs arrived at Yale University, he became fast friends with the man who would be his college roommate for four years, Robert Peace. Robert’s life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s, with his father in jail and his mother earning less than $15,000 a year. But Robert was a brilliant student, and it was supposed to get easier when he was accepted to Yale, where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics. But it didn’t get easier. Robert carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence, “fronting” in Yale, and at home.

Through an honest rendering of Robert’s relationships—with his struggling mother, with his incarcerated father, with his teachers and friends and fellow drug dealers—The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America: race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and love. It’s about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds—the ivy-covered campus of Yale University and Newark, New Jersey, and the difficulty of going from one to the other and then back again. It’s about poverty, the challenges of single motherhood, and the struggle to find male role models in a community where a man is more likely to go to prison than to college. It’s about reaching one’s greatest potential and taking responsibility for your family no matter the cost. It’s about trying to live a decent life in America. But most all the story is about the tragic life of one singular brilliant young man. His end, a violent one, is heartbreaking and powerful and unforgettable.

The first major biography of an American icon, comedian Bill Cosby. Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with Cosby and more than sixty of his closest friends and associates, it is a frank, fun and fascinating account of his life and historic legacy. Far from the gentle worlds of his routines or TV shows, Cosby grew up in a Philadelphia housing project, the son of an alcoholic, largely absent father and a loving but overworked mother. With novelistic detail, award winning journalist Mark Whitaker tells the story of how, after dropping out of high school, Cosby turned his life around by joining the Navy, talking his way into college, and seizing his first breaks as a stand-up comedian.

Published on the 30th anniversary of The Cosby Show, the book reveals the behind-the-scenes story of that groundbreaking sitcom as well as Cosby’s bestselling albums, breakout role on I Spy, and pioneering place in children’s TV. But it also deals with professional setbacks and personal dramas, from an affair that sparked public scandal to the murder of his only son, and the private influence of his wife of fifty years, Camille Cosby.

Whitaker explores the roots of Cosby’s controversial stands on race, as well as “the Cosby effect” that helped pave the way for a black president. For any fan of Bill Cosby’s work, and any student of American television, comedy, or social history, Cosby: His Life and Times is an essential read.

After the incredible success of Animal, K’wan is back with the second, bloody installment in the new Animal saga. Secrets are revealed, sides are chosen and bodies are dropped…it’s on! The man ordered to take Animal from the world turns out to be the man who brought him into it. Animal finds himself torn between his hatred for the father who had abandoned him and the man who had taken everything from him. An uneasy truce is formed between father and son to take down a common enemy and finally grant Animal his freedom from the blood debt he’s carried for so many years. But when the ghosts of Animal’s past catch up with him he learns that nothing is what it seems, and everything is subject to corruption, even his love for Gucci.

Before there was E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey, there was Zane’s Addicted. Once described as “the hottest paperback in the country” by the New York Times and now a major motion picture distributed by Lionsgate, this wildly popular novel by the Queen of Erotica follows one woman’s life as it spirals out of control when her three extramarital affairs lead her down a dark and twisted path.

For successful African-American businesswoman Zoe Reynard, finding the pleasure she wants, the way she wants it, is not worth the risk of losing everything she has: marriage to the man she has loved since childhood, a thriving company, and three wonderful children. But Zoe feels helpless in the grip of an overpowering addiction…to sex.

Finding a compassionate woman therapist to help her, Zoe finally summons the courage to tell her torrid story, a tale of guilt and desire as shocking as it is compelling. From the sensitive artist with whom she spends stolen hours on rumpled sheets to the rough and violent man who draws her toward destruction, Zoe is a woman desperately searching for fulfillment—and something darker, deeper, and perhaps deadly. As her life spins out of control and her sexual escapades carry her toward a dangerous choice, Zoe is racing against time to uncover the source of her “fatal attraction”—as chilling secrets tumble forth from the recesses of a woman’s mind, and perilous temptations lead toward a climax that can threaten her sanity, her marriage…and her life.

This sequel to the historical bestseller Blackberry Days of Summer reunites the people of Jefferson County, Virginia, with yet another murder and the resurrection of an evil thought to be dead and gone.

As she adjusts to a new beginning in Richmond, Virginia, Carrie Parker finds herself juggling motherhood, work, school, and increasing strains on her new marriage to Simon. Carrie and Simon are happy parents, but sometimes Carrie feels there’s something dark and evil about her little baby’s eyes, and it scares her. She vows he will not be anything like his real father—a beady-eyed womanizer now long gone. But the past has a strange way of creeping back into the present…

Just as the dust is settling on the murder of Carrie’s stepfather, Herman Camm, everybody in Richmond is shocked to find out his memory is not yet gone. Did he really die? And what part did Carrie play? Soon she is forced to answer questions and return to a past riddled with abuse, corruption, scandal, and deceit. Will she be able to move on with her life, or will the past follow Carrie and her family wherever they go?

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Erotica, Zane is back with a new novel about a testy love affair that emerges between a woman who’s had enough and a man who’s had it all.

Jemistry Daniels is a bitter woman and not trying to hide it. Even though she is beautiful, intelligent, and makes six figures a year as a high school principal in Washington, DC, one man after another has failed her. So she decides to give up and join the party by adapting the entire “friends with benefits” mentality with a couple of men that she beds on the regular but refuses to hold any kind of real conversation with, in fear that she might actually catch feelings.

Everything is going according to plan until she meets Dr. Tevin Harris, a prominent vascular surgeon, one night at a poetry slam. Tevin listens to her deliver her male-bashing poem and instead of steering away from her like most men with any common sense would do, he asks her out. Tevin has been casually dating for years, ever since his failed marriage to Estella. They had suffered several miscarriages and the emotional pain had become too much for either one of them to bear and still wake up with each other every morning.

Opening up, gaining trust, tearing down barriers, and ultimately, having the audacity to love again is not easy for either Jemistry or Tevin. It takes a lot of transparency, emotional honesty, and patience to even begin to build a life together by helping each other rebuild what has been broken. The Other Side of the Pillow examines, explores, and exposes what it means to truly fall in love. It proves that true love stories do not have a happy ending. True love stories never end at all.

In this enthralling new novel from the author of The List (a “smartly paced and dishy debut,” Publishers Weekly, starred review), a young woman working in the high-end art world stumbles upon a rare antique—and an irresistible man with a dark past.

After eight years in the American Furniture department at Christie’s, twenty-nine-year-old Carolyn Everett is a rising star. But one wrong decision and a scandal leaves her unemployed and broken. Desperate to piece her life back together, Carolyn leaves New York City to work in a tiny antique store in Newport, Rhode Island.

One day at a small county auction, she discovers a piece of Middle Eastern pottery, which she purchases for twenty dollars on a hunch. Curiosity sends her on a mission to find its original owner, and she eventually winds up in the town’s United States Navy Base—and in a relationship with notorious womanizer Marine Sergeant Tyler Ford, who claims the relic came to him as a gift from his translator during the early days of the Iraq War. From two different worlds, Tyler and Carolyn become obsessed with the mysterious relic—and each other—until the origin of the art comes under intense scrutiny and reveals a darker side of Tyler’s past. Carolyn still feels like there’s more to the story, but can she risk attaching herself to another scandal—and does she truly know the man she’s fallen in love with?

The Price of Inheritance is a rare find of a novel. Engaging, suspenseful, and full of intrigue, it delves into the elite world of big bucks deals and dangerous black market promises, where one woman must decide whether she’s willing to gamble her greatest asset—her heart.

The City of Silk is seething. The corrupt government has been ruling over the people too long and the city is becoming restless. Then one hot evening The Leader, a head of a group of rebels, gathers his followers and tells them: ’Today, we will be making history. For ourselves, and our fellow countrymen of Sans Amen.’ And so a ragtag collection of men and boys take up arms and storm two of the most important buildings in the city: the house of power and the television studios. Together they will take back what is rightfully theirs. Caught up in the madness is Ashes. A bookish, learned man, he has been swept up by The Leader’s powerful rhetoric. But now that words have turned to action he is not so sure anymore. And trapped inside the government building with the rebels is Aspasia. A proud woman, a mother of boys, she sees much of her sons in these boys with guns in their hands and power in their eyes. A powerful, evocative and important novel from the author of The White Woman on the Green Bicycle.

#1 national bestselling author ReShonda Tate Billingsley gets to the heart of loss, love, and betrayal in her latest novel that is sure to delight her legions of fans. Felise is not the kind of woman to cheat on her husband—especially with her best friend’s man. But after one perfect storm of a night, it happened…and she can hardly believe it herself. To top it off, when she woke up in the morning, she found that the man to whom she guiltily made passionate love died of a heart attack overnight. Felise, who is a nurse and a good citizen at that, leaves the hotel room without reporting his death.

When her best friend, Paula, finds out about her husband’s sudden death a day later, Felise is overcome with guilt and grief. She must be there for her friend and her family, but when her husband repeatedly tries to apologize for his absentminded behavior and Paula starts investigating who Stephen was with the night he died, Felise finds it hard to hold herself together. Should she come clean and tell everyone what she did? Or should she just let it go and move past the mistake on her own?

Want to lose weight without counting calories, starving yourself, giving up your favorite foods, or eating bland packaged foods? Would you like to look and feel younger and healthier than you have in years without diets and exercise? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, this book is for you! JJ Smith’s revolutionary system teaches proven methods for permanent weight loss that anyone can follow, no matter her size, income level, or educational level. And the end result is a healthy, sexy, slim body.

JJ’s breakthrough weight-loss solution can help you shed pounds fast by detoxifying the body, balancing your hormones, and speeding up your metabolism. You’ll learn which foods help you stay slim and which foods cause you to get fat. If you have been on a roller-coaster ride of weight loss, you will finally be able to get off, lose weight, and stay slim for life!

You will learn how to…

• Detoxify the body for fast weight loss
• Drop pounds and inches fast, without grueling workouts or starvation
• Lose up to 15 pounds in the three-week jump-start phase
• Shed unwanted fat by eating foods you love, including carbs
• Get rid of stubborn belly fat
• Trigger your 6 fat-burning hormones to lose weight effortlessly
• Eat foods that give you radiant skin and the body you've always wanted
• Eat so you feel energetic and alive every day
• Get physically active without exercising

This is your last stop on the way to a new fit and healthy you! Look and feel younger than you have in years. Create your best body—NOW!

Made up of super-nutrients from leafy greens and fruits, green smoothies are filling and healthy and you will enjoy drinking them. Your body will also thank you for drinking them as your health and energy improve to levels you never thought possible. It is an experience that could change your life if you stick with it! This book provides a shopping list, recipes, and detailed instructions for the 10-day cleanse, along with suggestions for getting the best results. It also offers advice on how to continue to lose weight and maintain good health afterwards. Are you ready to look slimmer, healthier, and sexier than you have in years? Then get ready to begin the 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse!

Set in a sun-kissed Caribbean paradise, this third book in the Shad detective series explores a love triangle gone wrong—and how class divisions create a perfect storm of trouble.

Sarah, a talented but shy artist from England, arrives at the perfect getaway—a small fishing village in Largo Bay, Jamaica. There she falls in love with Danny, a wealthy investor with a hotel in Largo Bay. Soon Sarah runs afoul of her host as well as Danny’s local lover, and her fate, as well as that of Danny’s hotel, become endangered.

Meanwhile, Shad Myers—“bartender by trade, investigator by vocation, and unofficial sheriff of Largo Bay” (Publishers Weekly)—has another set of problems to solve, alongside his friend Eric, an American who owns the bar. The two friends entertain a new potential investor in their quest to rebuild their hotel left in ruins by a hurricane. Eric wants to make Shad a partner in the business, not just a worker. But first the two must overcome the class divisions that make it difficult for local partners in the business to accept Shad’s new, more important role.

With a delicious blend of suspense and soul, The Sea Grape Tree explores the class divisions in Jamaica—and what happens when a love triangle becomes life threatening. Gillian Royes once again delivers a vivid, thought-provoking novel with passion and punch that is sure to leave her fans wanting more.

What if overcoming the legacy of American slavery meant bringing back that very institution? A young black attorney is thrown headlong into controversial issues of race and power in this page-turning and provocative new novel.

Martin Grey, a smart, talented black lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, becomes friendly with a group of some of the most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men in America. He’s dazzled by what they’ve accomplished, and they seem to think he has the potential to be as successful as they are. They invite him for a weekend away from it all—no wives, no cell phones, no talk of business. But far from home and cut off from everyone he loves, he discovers a disturbing secret that challenges some of his deepest convictions…

Martin finds out that his glittering new friends are part of a secret society dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery—but this time around, the black men are called “Master.” Joining them seems to guarantee a future without limits; rebuking them almost certainly guarantees his death. Trapped inside a picture-perfect, make-believe world that is home to a frightening reality, Martin must find a way out that will allow him to stay alive without becoming the very thing he hates.

A novel of rage and compassion, good and evil, trust and betrayal, Forty Acres is the thought-provoking story of one man’s desperate attempt to escape the clutches of a terrifying new moral order.

Three Los Angeles women who’ve helped each other overcome heartbreak are reunited eight years later when their troublesome exes come back into the picture in this follow up to Victoria Christopher Murray’s bestselling novel The Ex Files.

Sheridan, Kendall, and Asia first bonded when they met seven years ago at a church prayer support group and now, their friendship has blossomed into a strong sisterhood. They’ve helped each other through the tragedies of their breakups and together, they’ve celebrated their triumphs. But now, their exes are back, wreaking havoc on lives they’ve work so hard to rebuild.

Sheridan has found love again after her ex-husband left her for a man. But old wounds are reopened when her ex-husband appears with his fiancee — a woman! And all of Sheridan’s insecurities and doubts come rushing back. Kendall’s former husband is now married to Kendall’s sister, Sabrina. And though Kendall has refused to interact with either one in the last seven years, she’s forced to reunite with Sabrina when their father is diagnosed with cancer. Asia has done her best to move away from her married boyfriend, a former star with the LA Lakers. But when they share a kiss, old desires are rekindled and Asia decides that it’s time for her and Bobby Johnson to get back together again.

With her trademark writing that “has the kind of momentum that prompts you to elbow disbelief aside and flip the pages in horrified enjoyment” (The Washington Post), Forever an Ex is Murray’s best novel yet.

Friendship defies racism for two boys in this stirring story of the "Freedom Summer" that followed the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Now in a 50th Anniversary Edition with a refreshed cover and a new introduction.

John Henry swims better than anyone I know.
He crawls like a catfish,
blows bubbles like a swamp monster,
but he doesn’t swim in the town pool with me.
He’s not allowed.

Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim.

But there’s one important way they’re different: Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn’t allowed to do everything his best friend is.

Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there…only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people’s hearts.

This 50th Anniversary Edition of a cherished and touching story includes a new introduction and a refreshed cover.

Four-time mayor of Washington, DC, Marion Barry, Jr. tells his shocking and courageous life story, beginning in the cotton fields in Mississippi to the executive offices of one of the most powerful cities in the world.

Known nationally as the disgraced mayor caught on camera smoking crack cocaine in a downtown hotel room with a mistress, Marion Barry Jr. has led a controversial career. This provocative, captivating narrative follows the Civil Rights activist, going back to his Mississippi roots, his Memphis upbringing, and his academic school days, up through his college years and move to Washington, DC, where he became actively involved in Civil Rights, community activism, and bold politics.

In Mayor for Life, Marion Barry, Jr. tells all—including the story of his campaigns for mayor of Washington, his ultimate rise to power, his personal struggles and downfalls, and the night of embarrassment, followed by his term in federal prison and ultimately a victorious fourth term as mayor. From the man who, despite the setbacks, boldly served the community of Washington, DC, this is his full story of courage, empowerment, hope, tragedy, triumph, and inspiration

He’s the “old guy in the club” who everyone judges and scorns, but there’s so much more to his story…Travel into the mind and soul of a complex man on the road to redemption in this riveting, true-to-life novel.

Almost everyone who has been to a nightclub has seen him: the “old man in the club.” He’s the graying, balding loner looking totally out of place, like he could be everyone’s father. Or grandfather. And almost everyone’s wondering the same thing: Why is he in here?

In Curtis Bunn’s The Old Man in the Club, you learn why. Meet Elliott Thomas, sixty-one years old, and not afraid of spending a night among twenty-something strangers. But his motivation for hanging out in clubs isn’t his fear of growing old; it’s his desire to “catch up on what I have missed.” Life hasn’t been easy for Elliott, and now he’s on a journey to redemption. How he goes about it, however, gives some people pause. Some find him charming, some find him creepy. The women his age find him disgusting. His buddies marvel at his nerve. His children loathe his existence. But no matter who judges him, Elliott is set on reclaiming his youth—the way he wants to.

A page-turner that outlines the depth, complexities, and motivations of an intriguing character, this novel will surprise and touch you—and make sure you’ll never look at the “old man in the club” the same way again.

In this charmingly subversive reinterpretation of a classic tale, the Morrisons and Pascal Lemaitre take a hilarious look at bullying.
The cocky lion, the self-proclaimed "baddest in the land," believes himself invincible until he gets a thorn stuck in his paw. Only a weak little mouse can help him, but then the lion must indulge the mouse’s ridiculous pride and appetite for power.
We, the creators of Who’s Got Game?, were inspired by the wonder of Aesop’s Fables — their vitality, their endless demand for new interpretations. In our versions the original stories are opened and their moralistic endings reimagined: the victim might not lose; the timid gets a chance to become strong; the foool can gain insight; the powerful may lose their grip. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. More than a play on these beloved fables, Who’s Got Game? is AESOP LIVE!
ALL AGES

"How can you say I never worked a day? ART is WORK. It just looks like play"
So says Foxy G to his buddy Kid A, in Toni and Slade Morrison’s sassy, sly tale of friendship, betrayal, and survival — or not.
Generation after generation, classic fables, folklore, and myth remain popular because they quicken the imagination of readers and listerners of all ages.
We, the creators of Who’s Got Game? were inspired by the wonder of Aesop’s Fables — their vitality, their endless demand for more interpretations. In our versions the original stories are opened up and their moralisitic endings reimagined; the victim might not lose; the timid gets a chance to become strong; the fool can gain insight; the powerful may lose their grip. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. More than a play on these beloved fables, Who’s Got Game? is AESOP LIVE!

In this clever riff on Aesop, Poppy feels guilty when he accidentally drives over Snake, and he decides to risk being bitten in order to free the sassy reptile. But smake wants more. This is a sly tale about who gets the last laugh.

We, the creators of Who’s Got Game? were inspired by the wonder of Aesop’s Fables — their vitality, their endless demand for more interpretations. In our versions the original stories are opened up and their moralisitic endings reimagined; the victim might not lose; the timid gets a chance to become strong; the fool can gain insight; the powerful may lose their grip. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. More than a play on these beloved fables, Who’s Got Game? is AESOP LIVE!

Essence magazine is the most popular, well respected, and largest circulated black women’s magazine in history. Largely unknown is the remarkable story of what it took to earn that distinction.

The Man from Essence depicts with candor and insight how Edward Lewis, CEO and publisher of Essence, started a magazine with three black men who would transform the lives of millions of black American women and alter the American marketplace. Throughout Essence’s colorful and storied history, Ed Lewis remained the cool and constant presence, a quiet-talking corporate captain and business strategist who prevailed against the odds and the naysayers. He would emerge to become the last man standing—the only partner to survive the battles that raged before the magazine was sold to Time, Inc. in the largest buyout of a black-owned publication by the world’s largest publishing company.

By the time Lewis did the deal with Time, a little magazine that limped from the starting gate in 1970 with a national circulation of 50,000 had grown into a powerhouse with a circulation of more than a million and a pass along readership of eight million.

The story of Essence is ultimately the story of American business, black style. From constant battles with a racist advertising community to hostile takeover attempts, warring partners packing heat, mass firings, and mass defections—all of which revealed inherent challenges in running a black business—the saga is as riveting as any thriller steeped in high drama, hijinks, and juicy dishing.

In this engaging business memoir, Ed Lewis tells the inspiring story of how his own rise from humble South Bronx beginnings to media titan was shaped by the black women and men in his life. This in turn helped shape a magazine that has changed the face of American media.

Travel into the heart and mind of an extraordinary autistic boy in this deeply imaginative debut novel of a mother’s devotion, a father’s punishment, and the power of love. Sephiri is an autistic boy who lives in a world of his own making, where he dwells among imagined sea creatures that help him process information in the ��real world�� in which he is forced to live. But lately he has been having dreams of a mysterious place, and he starts creating fantastical sketches of this strange, inner world. Brenda, Sephiri’s mother, struggles with raising her challenged child alone. Her only wish is to connect with him a smile on his face would be a triumph. Meanwhile, Sephiri’s father, Horus, is sentenced to life in prison, making life even lonelier for Brenda and Sephiri. Yet prison is still not enough to separate father and son. In the seventh year of his imprisonment and the height of his isolation, Horus develops supernatural mental abilities that allow him to reach his son. Memory and yearning carry him outside his body, and through the realities of their ordeals and dreamscape, Horus and Sephiri find each other and find hope in ways never imagined. Deftly portrayed by the remarkable and talented up-and-comer Morowa Yejidé, Time of the Locust is a brilliant narrative about the psychological realms of solitude, youth, and wonder. At its heart, this is a harrowing, surreal, and redemptive journey to the union of a family.