This memoir traces Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a sometimes disquieting, but always affecting picture of the people-and the times-that touched her life.

If you are looking for a book to give to a teenage reader, here's the reference you've been waiting for. Until now, there's been no accepted guide to what's good, bad, or indifferent in the flood of books coming off the presses in the hot new category of young-adult publishing. If it's true that you can't judge a book by its cover, it is especially true for teen books, as publishers take aim at a new class of readers. The books land on shelves without...

Bryon and Mark have been inseparable best friends from childhood, but now, at sixteen, they both sense they are growing apart. When Byron discovers that Mark is pushing dope to young kids, he must fce a decision that might destry their longtime friendship.

In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.

The story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat, starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the book return slot at the Spencer, Iowa, Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff,...

Introduces young readers to poetry with over thirty well-known poems written by one of America's most renowned poets.

Although racism still exists in the United States, it has generally become more subtle, leading some to deny that it is still a problem. Now that institutional segregation is no longer considered acceptable, some people argue that racism as a whole has been eradicated. Readers discover that this mindset ignores covert, or hidden, racism, which often deals with assumptions: for example, that a black mother does not have a husband or that all Hispanic...

Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times,...

In the 1930s, black singer Marian Anderson was not allowed to perform at Constitution Hall. But with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson staged an amazing concert at the Lincoln Memorial and became an activist for civil rights.

The author recalls his personal experiences growing up under South African Apartheid during the 1970s, the poverty and oppression of living in the ghettos of Alexandra, and of those who helped him escape from it.