WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW

Sonya Sones, . . Simon Pulse, $6.99 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-689-85553-5

"Drawing on the recognizable cadence of teenage speech, the author poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy," wrote PW in a starred review. "She weaves separate free verse poems into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending." Ages 12-up. (Feb.)

Featured Children's Reviews

Cheryl Willis Hudson

Willis Hudson movingly exalts the power of African American spirituals in a lyrics showcase that pairs existing verses with feelings they can evoke. On the first page, a Black Continue reading »

Traci N Todd

Todd and Davis’s melodic paean to performer Ella Jenkins (b. 1924) follows a figure who “wants/ to make/ a pretty sound.” Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, musically inclined Continue reading »

Kwame Alexander

“Listen to...” repeats Alexander and Palmer’s entrancing history of Black music. The account begins with an image of brown-skinned people dancing and drumming in “the Continue reading »

Quartez Harris

“The first time James Baldwin read a book, the words clung to him like glitter.” Harris and James home in on the emotional core of the author’s upbringing in this moving work Continue reading »