"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

It is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's birthday celebration in her grandparent's Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, escorted by her father to the soundtrack of Prince, she wears a special, custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own sixteenth birthday party and a celebration which...

"A group of kids celebrate the joy and freedom of summer on their Brooklyn block"--

When a new, white student nicknamed "The Jesus Boy" joins her sixth grade class in the winter of 1971, Frannie's growing friendship with him makes her start to see some things in a new light.

Nací en Ohio, pero las historias de Carolina del Sur corrían ya, como ríos, por mis venas. Hablan de crecer en distintos hogares, de una época que arrastra todavía los residuos de las leyes Jim Crow y del movimiento de los derechos civiles como respuesta.

Cuando hace tanto calor como para hacer estallar los hidrantes, eso solo significa una cosa: ¡por fin lleg̤ el verano! Liberados de la escuela y disfrutando de su libertad, los nįos de una cuadra de Brooklyn hacen de las calles su patio de recreo. Desde la mąana hasta la noche, crean su propia diversi̤n, dejan volar su imaginaci̤n y aprenden a trabajar y jugar juntos. Es un mundo donde todo es posible...al menos hasta que sus madres los llamen...

When Mama's pregnancy draws attention away from Gia, she worries that the special bond they share will disappear forever once the baby is born.

Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion, " keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.

This moving memoir-in-verse tells about what it means to be an everyday activist and foot solider for racial justice, as Kathlyn recounts how she went from attending protests as a teenager to fighting as an adult for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday to become a national holiday.