"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters...

"A dazzling debut novel from an exciting new voice, The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community--and the things that ultimately haunt us most. Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett's mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret. "All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd...

Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn't say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a church-going black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn't say. Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn't really...

While on a post-graduation Mediterranean cruise with her family, Lenore Bennett meets a hopeless romantic with a ten-year plan who helps her find something she's been looking for--love. A star artist and style icon at her high school, Lenore Bennett is a master in the subtle art of not giving a... well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she's a little less sure. Heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for "undeclared") written...

With a highly rated Insurgency Alert Desk that surveils and harasses his neighborhood in the name if anti-terrorism, Copeland Cane V, entrapped in a reality that chews up his past and obscures his future, finds himself caught in the flood of history aftera protest rally against police violence.

Michael Oher is a homeless African-American teenager who is from a broken home. Mike is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, Mike faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome - as both a football player and student. Mike works hard and, with...

There's plenty of hip-hoppenin' when Philip runs for Superior Court judge, Vivian develops a taste for sardines and Rocky Road, Hilary lands a gig as a TV weather reporter, and Will is ready to graduate and is checking out colleges.

Soon after his mother's death, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept her death and his responsibilities as a man.

Before the "accident" Genie was an aspiring ballerina, a star pupil at her exclusive New York dance school, now she is a bitter teenager, permanently confined to a wheelchair, shutting herself off from her friends, her beloved teacher, and even her mother; but at physical therapy she meets Kyle, a gymnast whose traumatic brain injury has landed him in therapy--and through their growing friendship Genie realizes that she has to confront the things...

In 1987, obese, illiterate, black 16-year-old Claireece 'Precious' Jones lives in Harlem with her dysfunctional family. She has been raped and impregnated twice by her father, Carl. She suffers constant physical, mental and sexual abuse from her unemployed mother, Mary. After getting pregnant for the second time, Precious is suspended from her school. Her principal arranges to have her attend an alternative school where her new teacher, Ms. Rain,...