**Winner of the Coretta Scott King awardSharon Flake's award-winning, empowering debut novel follows one girl's struggle toward self acceptance, no matter what the world throws her way. Includes a foreword by bestselling, award-winning author Jason Reynolds!**Maleeka suffers every day from the taunts of the other kids in her class. If they're not getting at her about her homemade clothes or her good grades, it's about her dark, black skin. Maleeka does whatever she can to t...

The story of one young girl's struggle for money and survival, and the lengths she will go to get both, now reissued with an arresting new cover.Is there greed in Raspberry Hill's genes? In this sequel to Coretta Scott King Honor Book Money Hungry, once-homeless Raspberry Hill vows never to end up on the streets again. It's been a year since Raspberry's mother threw her hard-earned money out the window like trash, so to Raspberry money equals secu...

In 9 stories and 15 poems, Sharon G. Flake provides insight into the minds of a diverse group adolescent African American males.here's Tow-Kaye, getting married at age 16 to love of his life, who's pregnant. He knows it's the right thing to do, but he's scared to death. James writes in his diary about his twin brother's terrible secret, which threatens to pull James down, too. Tyler explains what it's like to be a player with the ladies. In a letter to his uncle, L...

Mann is only thirteen, yet he has already had to deal with more than most go through in a lifetime. His family is still reeling from the tragic shooting death of his little brother, Jason, each person coping with grief in his or her own way. Mann's mother has stopped eating and is obsessed with preserving Jason's memory, while his father is certain that presenting a hard edge is the only way to keep his remaining son from becoming a statistic. Mann used to paint and ride horseback, but now...

Guys and girls get together, get played, and get real.Who Am I Without Him? is a Booklist Top Ten Romance Novel for Teens and is "breaking new and necessary ground"in twelve short stories about guys and girls falling in and out of love and relationships, testing out ways to communicate with one another, respect each other -- and respect themselves.This is a complex, often humorous, and always on-point exploration of today'...

The mesmerizing story of one girl's struggle to break her family's cycle of poverty is reissued with an arresting new cover.Thirteen-year-old Raspberry Hill is starved for money. She will do just about anything legal to get her hands on the almighty dollar -- wash cars, sell rotten candy, skip lunch, clean houses. She is obsessed. She is driven. She is afraid. Memories of being homeless, sleeping in the streets, and eating handouts keep Raspberry's eye on the only ...

The powerful and long-anticipated companion to The Skin I'm In, Sharon Flake's bestselling modern classic, presents the unflinching story of Char, a young woman trapped in the underworld of human trafficking.*My feet are heavy as stones when I walk up the block wondering why I can't find my old self.*In The Skin I'm In, readers saw into the life of Maleeka Madison, a teen who suffered from the ridicule she received because of her dark skin color. For decades fans ...

From the three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winning author of The Skin I'm In comes a poignant story about a southern girl far from home at an elite girls boarding school in the north, who must find the courage to be herself and to dream of a brighter future, set against the backdrop of the great migration in South Philly.You can be what you want in life.Climb as high as you wish.Nothing can stop you,not...

The bestselling and award-winning author of The Skin I'm In and The Life I'm In returns with a novel that explores the complex relationships between Black boys and their fathers, and what it truly means to be a man.Sharon Flake's groundbreaking novel, The Skin I'm In ushered in a new voice that lit up the YA landscape, ignited important conversations about self-perception and racial identity, and became a modern classic that has been pass...

The powerful and long-anticipated companion to The Skin I'm In, Sharon Flake's bestselling modern classic, presents the unflinching story of Char, a young woman trapped in the underworld of human trafficking.My feet are heavy as stones when I walk up the block wondering why I can't find my old self.Turned out of the only home she has known, Char boards a bus to nowhere. Sadly, she soon finds herself lured into the dangerous web of human trafficking. Much...

The bestselling and award-winning author of The Skin I'm In and The Life I'm In returns with a novel that explores the complex relationships between Black boys and their fathers, and what it truly means to be a man.Sharon Flake's groundbreaking novel, The Skin I'm In ushered in a new voice that lit up the YA landscape, ignited important conversations about self-perception and racial identity, and became a modern classic that has been pass...

From the three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winning author of The Skin I'm In comes a poignant story about a southern girl far from home at an elite girls boarding school in the north, who must find the courage to be herself and to dream of a brighter future, set against the backdrop of the great migration in South Philly.You can be what you want in life.Climb as high as you wish.Nothing can stop you,not...