Renée Watson, Bloomsbury, $15.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-59990-446-7
Watson's first novel (after the picture book A Place Where Hurricanes Happen) explores themes of abuse, faith, and identity in an urban setting through the voice, diary entries, and poems of 13-year-old Serenity Evans. Serenity and her younger...
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Renée Watson. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59990-668-3
As twins Maya and Nikki finish their junior year of high school, they have things planned out: summer, senior year, then attending Spelman College along with their best friend and neighbor Essence. But things are changing. The twins’ historically...
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Renée Watson. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-68119-105-8
Jade Butler, an African-American artist-in-the-making, lives with her mother in Portland, Ore., and travels by bus to private school, where she is both grateful for and resentful of the opportunities presented to her. In short, poetic chapters, Jade
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Renée Watson. Bloomsbury, $16.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-68119-108-9
When “sneaker-head” Amara Baker expresses a wish to visit her father’s childhood home in Harlem for her upcoming 12th birthday, her mother, eight months pregnant with a baby sister Amara is less than thrilled about, isn’t too keen on the idea. But...
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Renée Watson, illus. by Shadra Strickland., Random, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-375-856099
Strickland's (Bird) quietly powerful watercolors make this story of four fictional Ninth Ward children caught in Hurricane Katrina especially affecting. As firsttime author Watson moves among the perspectives of the children—Adrienne, Michael,...
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Ren%C3%A9e Watson, illus. by Christian Robinson. Random, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-375-86973-0
Watson (A Place Where Hurricanes Happen) pairs with first-time illustrator Robinson for a subdued but striking telling of the life of Florence Mills, following her journey from "the daughter of former slaves, living in a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy house"
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Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan. Bloomsbury, $18.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-5476-0008-3
From Watson (Piecing Me Together) and poet Hagan comes a complex and socially conscious coming-of-age tale featuring young women of color. Jasmine, a plus-size African-American girl with a passion for acting, and her best friend Chelsea, a white...
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Edited by Ibi Zoboi. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-269872-8
This collection of 17 original stories is written by contemporary black authors who explore “teens examining, rebelling against, embracing, or simply existing within their own idea of blackness.” The tales offer a wide array of perspectives and...
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Ilyasah Shabazz, with Renée Watson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-374-30610-6
The daughter of Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X, Shabazz (X: A Novel) joins with Watson (Piecing Me Together) to tell this absorbing fictionalized account of her mother’s formative years. In a straightforward but engaging narrative voice, Betty...
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Renée Watson, illus. by Nina Mata. Bloomsbury, $16.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-5476-0056-4
In this series opener, a loose reimagining of Ramona Quimby’s exploits, Watson (Some Places More Than Others) adroitly captures the uncertainty of growing up amid change through the eyes of an irrepressible black girl. Fourth grader Ryan Hart’s name
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