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Sixteen-year-old Tyrell, accustomed to being the man of the family, has mixed feelings when his father comes home from jail, but he knows he cannot just go back to being a little boy, especially after losing his younger brother to foster care, getting involved with drug dealers, learning about his mother's infidelity, and developing a relationship with Jasmine.

High schooler Kendra longs to live with her mother who, unprepared for motherhood at age fourteen, left Kendra in the care of her grandmother.

Shavonne, a fierce, desperate seventeen year-old in juvenile lockup, wants to turn her life around before her eighteenth birthday, but corrupt guards, out-of-control girls, and shadows from her past make her task seem impossible.

Afraid of being taken from his grandmother and placed in a foster home, Harold Davis, a Bluford High freshman, begins to work for the neighborhood drug dealer, Londell James, but Harold's choice leads him to world more dangerous than he could have imagined.

When Hakeem Randall's father becomes ill the family can no longer keep their home.

Joe's decision to leave home is prompted by despair over his mother's blindness to his younger brother's talents and his older brother's drug addiction.

Seventeen-year-old Carson Speier is bored of Billings, Montana, and resentful that he has to help his mother take care of his father, a dying alcoholic whom he has not seen in fourteen years--but then he meets Aisha, a beautiful African American girl who has run away from her own difficult family, and together they embark on a journey of discovery that may help them both come to terms with their lives.

"A newbie to the track team, Patina "Patty" Jones must learn to rely on her family and teammates as she tries to outrun her personal demons"--Provided by publisher.

"Kayla must salvage her double Dutch dreams after her parents' rocky relationship takes her away from Brooklyn--and her beloved team--to spend the summer in North Carolina"--Provided by publisher.

It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first African American Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.

"When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world"--Provided by publisher.

"Thirteen-year-old Genesis tries again and again to lighten her black skin, thinking it is the root of her family's troubles, before discovering reasons to love herself as is"--Provided by publisher.

"Eleven-year-old Makeda dreams of meeting her African American mother, while coping with serious problems in her white adopted family, a cross-country move, and being homeschooled"--Provided by publisher.

"Fifteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz is torn between two worlds, passing for white while living in Harlem, being called Jewish while attending her mother's Baptist church, and experiencing first love while watching her parents' marriage crumble"--Provided by publisher.

"From age six through her high school valedictory speech, believing she and her mother are wizards helps young Echo cope with poverty, hunger, her mother's drug abuse, and much more"--Provided by publisher.