When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, Jordan Sparks, who abuses her, and from their mother, whose irresponsible behavior forces Gerald to work hard to keep the family together. As a teenager, Gerald finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, while Angel develops her talents as a dancer. Trouble still haunts them, however, and Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation. Sharon M. Draper has interwoven characters and events from her previous novel, Tears of a...

When the Ku Klux Klan's unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella's segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era tour de force from Sharon Draper, the New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind. Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can't. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn't bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they're never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella's community - her world - is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don't necessarily signify an end.

Melody flies to London to speak at a convention about differently abled kids in this stunning sequel to the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling middle grade novels Out of My Mind and Out of My Heart.When Melody saves an elderly back-in-the-day actress's life, the woman is so grateful—and impressed by Melody—that she nominates Melody to be a US spokesperson at an international symposium for kids with different abilities. To Melody's utter shock and delight, she and two friends of her choice are chosen to participate—and this year's symposium is in England! Melody finally gets to fly on an airplane, and even the airline's somewhat clumsy handling of her wheelchair can't dampen her excitement to be in London. There, Melody meets kids from all over the world who are rallying for greater accessibility and more thoughtful planning on how to make the world more equal for every kid, no matter the unusual challenges they face. As...

He's a "lemon drop wrapped in licorice": tall, dark, handsome, and as smooth as his silk shirts and leather jacket. He can discuss everything from art to world events, he's traveled the world, and he owns a Jeep, a condo, and a jazz CD collection. But best of all, twenty-three-year-old Jonathan Hathaway, the new track coach and the principal's son, has his golden eyes set on Keisha Montgomery. In her senior year of high school, still recovering from the suicide of her ex-boyfriend, Keisha's thrilled to have someone treat her like a woman rather than a girl. As Jonathan tells her, she's a butterfly ready to try her wings -- much too mature for high school boys, whose only deep thoughts are words from rap songs. Jonathan makes her feel alive again; he seems like the answer to all her dreams and the cure to all her nightmares. Gifts wrapped with silver ribbons begin to mysteriously appear on her doorstep, and Keisha is swept off her feet. But events take a terrifying turn, and suddenly darkness overwhelms her life.... As Keisha struggles to put her world back in perspective, she learns the power and the danger of silence, and discovers the secret gifts that had been waiting for her all along.

secrets Delia loves Double Dutch more than just about anything, and she's really good at it -- so good she and her teammates have a shot at winning the World Double Dutch Championships. Delia would die if she couldn't jump -- but Delia has a secret, and it could keep her off the team next year. Delia's friend Randy has a secret too, one that has him lonely and scared. And while Delia and Randy struggle to keep their secrets, their school is abuzz with rumors about what malicious mischief the terrible Tolliver twins -- who just may have a secret of their own -- are planning. Delia and Randy's secrets collide on what should be the happiest day of Delia's life, and the collision threatens to destroy their friendship. Why can't life be as easy for Delia as Double Dutch?

Ziggy, Rashawn, Jerome, and Rico -- the Black Dinosaurs -- are thrilled to discover that their hometown was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Even more exciting, their new friend Mr. Greene has given them an old map that shows a secret passage, dating back to the days of the Railroad, right under their own school! How can the Black Dinosaurs resist making plans to check it out? When a trapdoor slams behind them, locking them in the tunnel, there's only one thing they can do -- plunge deeper and deeper into the darkness. Where will the tunnel lead them? And will the old, crumbling walls hold until they find their way to the end?

New York Times bestselling author Sharon Draper delivers a fresh, funny series starring oh-so-fabulous Sassy! Please see extended summary.

The Black Dinosaurs have always explored the past in their adventures, but now they're going into the future - to Space Camp! They'll learn what weightlessness feels like, what astronauts eat, even how they go to the bathroom! Ziggy, of course, really wants to meet up with aliens - purple, three-headed, fire-spitting Martians like the ones in his Mega Mighty Martian Blaster game. Ziggy soon discovers that real-life space travel is just as exciting as anything even his active imagination can cook up. Still, he can't help wondering where the mysterious shiny stone he finds might have come from...

Ziggy and his Black Dinosaur pals are excited about their overnight camping trip to Caesar's Creek State Park - it was named after an ex-slave who later became a Shawnee chief! Their camping counselor is descended from Caesar, and she fills the campers' imaginations with intriguing but sometimes spooky stories about her ancestor and Shawnee legends and traditions. So when Ziggy and his friends discover an old canoe in some bushes by the lake, they decide to sneak outside at night and test their courage like Shawnee youth in their manhood ceremonies. But Shawnee youth probably wouldn't have found themselves drifting in the middle of the lake with their paddles still on shore, or lost in the woods surrunded by strange noises. Could it be a bear? Or the ancient spirits of their counseor's tales?

Eleven-year-old Isabella's blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper.Eleven-year-old Isabella's parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she's Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she's Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves. Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they're always about HER. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them than ever. And she's is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching...