Yaa Gyasi

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Minnesota

Winner of the NBCC's John Leonard First Book Prize A New York Times Notable Book A Washington Post Notable Book One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Oprah.com, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Mother Jones, BuzzFeed, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the notorious Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and shipped off to America to be sold into slavery. With breathtaking scope, Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the slave traders of the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the Asantes' struggle against British colonialism to the first stirrings of the American Civil War, from the jazz of twentieth-century Harlem to the sparkling shores of modern Ghana. Yaa Gyasi's extraordinary novel illuminates slavery's troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed--and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.

Homegoing

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Louise Erdrich

From the award-winning author of Love Medicine comes a vibrant tale of abandonment and sexual obsession, jealousy and unstinting love--a 40-year saga brimming with original and powerful characters.

The Beet Queen

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Sandra Cisneros

And Other Stories

A collection of stories by Sandra Cisneros, the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

The lovingly drawn characters of these stories give voice to the vibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border with tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

Woman Hollering Creek

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Allan Stratton

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The truth is closing in.

Life's not easy for Sami Sabiri since his dad stuck him at a private school where he's the only Muslim kid. But it's about to get a lot worse.

When Sami catches his father in a lie, he gets suspicious. . . . He's not the only one. In a whirlwind, the FBI descends on his home, and Sami's family becomes the center of an international terrorist investigation. Now Sami must fight to keep his world from unraveling.

An explosive thriller ripped from today's headlines, borderline is the story of a funny, gutsy Muslim-American teen determined to save his father, his family, and his life.

Borderline

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Alton Carter

A True Story (Older YA Cover)

Abandoned by his father, neglected by his mother, and shuttled between foster homes and a boys' ranch, a young African-American man refuses to succumb to the fate that the world says should be his. Told by the man who lived it.

The Boy Who Carried Bricks

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Paul West

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Illness and Self-Discovery

West examines his symptoms as he suffers from heart disease, diabetes, migraines, and muses over hospital minutiae, existentialism, and the enigma of his biological clock.

A Stroke of Genius

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Ishmael Beah

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

In a heart-wrenching, candid autobiography, a human rights activist offers a firsthand account of war from the perspective of a former child soldier, detailing the violent civil war that wracked his native Sierra Leone and the government forces that transformed a gentle young boy into a killer as a member of the army. 75,000 first printing.

A Long Way Gone

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Carl Hart

A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know about Drugs and Society

High Price is the harrowing and inspiring memoir of neuroscientist Carl Hart, a leading researcher in the field of drug addiction, who grew up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and, determined to make a difference as an adult, tirelessly applies his scientific training to help save real lives.

WINNER OF THE PEN/E. O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD

 

Young Carl didn't see the value of school, studying just enough to keep him on the basketball team. Today, he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist--Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences--whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction.



In this provocative and eye-opening memoir, Dr. Carl Hart recalls his journey of self-discovery, how he escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies. Interweaving past and present, Hart goes beyond the hype as he examines the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. His findings shed new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs, and explain why current policies are failing.

High Price

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Catherine N. Dulmus

Karen M. Sowers

Social Studies

Guided by History, Led by Evidence

An expert introduction to the foundations of the social work profession—from its historical roots to its evolution in an era of evidence-based practice The Profession of Social Work provides a broad overview of the history, scope, values, ethics, and organizational framework of the social work profession. Exploring professional ethics and human rights, evidence-based practice and practice-guided research, as well as emerging trends and issues, this important book presents topics of critical importance to anyone considering a career in social work. Each chapter in the text offers an array of pedagogical features, including Key Terms, Review Questions for Critical Thinking, and Online Resources. Ideal for introductory courses for both undergraduate and graduate students, The Profession of Social Work features coverage closely aligned with social work accreditation standards (EPAS) and includes chapters authored by established scholars on topics including: Social work history Social work education Professional credentialing and regulations Values and ethics The strengths perspective in social work practice Evidence-based practice and improving the scientific base for social work practice Contemporary issues in social work With a wealth of insider insights into and guidance on the profession of social work, this book is essential reading to prepare for a career in this field.

The Profession of Social Work

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Kekla Magoon

A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq's friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down. How It Went Down is a timely story by acclaimed author Kekla Magoon who won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for The Rock and the River, and whose book X :A Novel (written with Ilyasah Shabazz) was longlisted for the National Book Award. This title has Common Core connections.

How It Went Down

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Jason Reynolds

Includes a reading group guide and an excerpt from 'All American boys' by Jason Reynolds.

The Boy in the Black Suit

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Angie Thomas

International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood. If there's one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it's that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad's in prison. Life's not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav's got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he's a father. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it's not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he's offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he's expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he's different. When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He'll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

Concrete Rose

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This is the highly anticipated second novel by Angie Thomas, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning The Hate U Give. Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least get some streams on her mixtape. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill. But when her mom unexpectedly loses her job, food banks and shut-off notices become as much a part of her life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it. On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are, and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working class black families. Brilliant, insightful, full of heart, this novel is another modern classic from one of the most influential literary voices of a generation.

On the Come Up

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Augusten X. Burroughs

A Memoir of My Father

The author of "Running with Scissors" delves into new territory with his most personal and unexpected memoir yet. "A Wolf at the Table" is the story of Burroughs' relationship with his father, his stunning psychological cruelty, and the redemptive power of hope.

A Wolf at the Table

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Carl Honore

Challenging the Cult of Speed

We live in the age of speed. We strain to be more efficient, to cram more into each minute, each hour, each day. Since the Industrial Revolution shifted the world into high gear, the cult of speed has pushed us to a breaking point. Consider these facts: Americans on average spend seventy-two minutes of every day behind the wheel of a car, a typical business executive now loses sixty-eight hours a year to being put on hold, and American adults currently devote on average a mere half hour per week to making love. Living on the edge of exhaustion, we are constantly reminded by our bodies and minds that the pace of life is spinning out of control. In Praise of Slowness traces the history of our increasingly breathless relationship with time and tackles the consequences of living in this accelerated culture of our own creation. Why are we always in such a rush? What is the cure for time sickness? Is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down? Realizing the price we pay for unrelenting speed, people all over the world are reclaiming their time and slowing down the pace -- and living happier, healthier, and more productive lives as a result. A Slow revolution is taking place. Here you will find no Luddite calls to overthrow technology and seek a preindustrial utopia. This is a modern revolution, championed by cell-phone using, e-mailing lovers of sanity. The Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word -- balance. People are discovering energy and efficiency where they may have been least expected -- in slowing down. In this engaging and entertaining exploration, award-winning journalist and rehabilitated speedaholic Carl Honoré details our perennial love affair with efficiency and speed in a perfect blend of anecdotal reportage, history, and intellectual inquiry. In Praise of Slowness is the first comprehensive look at the worldwide Slow movements making their way into the mainstream -- in offices, factories, neighborhoods, kitchens, hospitals, concert halls, bedrooms, gyms, and schools. Defining a movement that is here to stay, this spirited manifesto will make you completely rethink your relationship with time.

In Praise of Slowness

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Sonya Hartnett

Surrender

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Melba Pattillo Beals

The author describes the threats and emotional abuse she endured from white student and adults along with her fears of endangering her family as she commited to being one of the first African American students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.

Warriors Don't Cry

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Jamie Ford

When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered in Seattle, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

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John Lewis

Andrew Aydin

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Honors and awards for this book: National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature, 2016; #1 New York Times and Washington Post Bestseller; First graphic novel to receive a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award; Winner of the Eisner Award; A Coretta Scott King Honor Book; One of YALSA's Outstanding Books for the College Bound; One of Reader's Digest's Graphic Novels Every Grown-Up Should Read.

March (Trilogy Slipcase Set)

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Shaka Senghor

Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An "extraordinary, unforgettable" (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow) memoir of redemption and second chances amidst America's mass incarceration epidemic, from a member of Oprah's SuperSoul 100

Shaka Senghor was raised in a middle-class neighborhood on Detroit's east side during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic. An honor roll student and a natural leader, he dreamed of becoming a doctor--but at age eleven, his parents' marriage began to unravel, and beatings from his mother worsened, which sent him on a downward spiral. He ran away from home, turned to drug dealing to survive, and ended up in prison for murder at the age of nineteen, full of anger and despair.

Writing My Wrongs is the story of what came next. During his nineteen-year incarceration, seven of which were spent in solitary confinement, Senghor discovered literature, meditation, self-examination, and the kindness of others--tools he used to confront the demons of his past, forgive the people who hurt him, and begin atoning for the wrongs he had committed. Upon his release at age thirty-eight, Senghor became an activist and mentor to young men and women facing circumstances like his. His work in the community and the courage to share his story led him to fellowships at the MIT Media Lab and the Kellogg Foundation and invitations to speak at events like TED and the Aspen Ideas Festival.

In equal turns, Writing My Wrongs is a page-turning portrait of life in the shadow of poverty, violence, and fear; an unforgettable story of redemption; and a compelling witness to our country's need for rethinking its approach to crime, prison, and the men and women sent there.

Writing My Wrongs

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Phillip Hoose

Twice Toward Justice

"When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'" - Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.
Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

Claudette Colvin is the National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, a Newbery Honor Book, A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist, and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.

Claudette Colvin

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Ibi Zoboi

Tracey Baptiste

Coe Booth

Dhonielle Clayton

Brandy Colbert

Jay Coles

Lamar Giles

Leah Henderson

Justina Ireland

Varian Johnson

Tochi Onyebuchi

Nic Stone

Liara Tamani

Renée Watson

Rita Williams-Garcia

Stories of Being Young and Black in America

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. Black is...sisters navigating their relationship at summer camp in Portland, Oregon, as written by Renée Watson. Black is…three friends walking back from the community pool talking about nothing and everything, in a story by Jason Reynolds. Black is…Nic Stone’s high-class beauty dating a boy her momma would never approve of. Black is…two girls kissing in Justina Ireland’s story set in Maryland. Black is urban and rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more—because there are countless ways to be Black enough. Contributors: Justina Ireland Varian Johnson Rita Williams-Garcia Dhonielle Clayton Kekla Magoon Leah Henderson Tochi Onyebuchi Jason Reynolds Nic Stone Liara Tamani Renée Watson Tracey Baptiste Coe Booth Brandy Colbert Jay Coles Ibi Zoboi Lamar Giles

Black Enough

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George Takei

Justin Eisinger

Steven Scott

A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What is American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins co-writers Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.

They Called Us Enemy

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Marlon James

A Novel

A tale inspired by the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley spans decades and continents to explore the experiences of journalists, drug dealers, killers and ghosts against a backdrop of period social and political turmoil. By the award-winning author of The Book of Night Women. 25,000 first printing.

A Brief History of Seven Killings

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Hannah Cushing

Browse by categories

Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing

Louise Erdrich

The Beet Queen

Sandra Cisneros

Woman Hollering Creek

Allan Stratton

Borderline

Alton Carter

The Boy Who Carried Bricks

Paul West

A Stroke of Genius

Ishmael Beah

A Long Way Gone

Carl Hart

High Price

Catherine N. Dulmus; Karen M. Sowers

The Profession of Social Work

Kekla Magoon

How It Went Down

Jason Reynolds

The Boy in the Black Suit

Angie Thomas

Concrete Rose

Angie Thomas

On the Come Up

Augusten X. Burroughs

A Wolf at the Table

Carl Honore

In Praise of Slowness

Sonya Hartnett

Surrender

Melba Pattillo Beals

Warriors Don't Cry

Jamie Ford

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

John Lewis; Andrew Aydin

March (Trilogy Slipcase Set)

Shaka Senghor

Writing My Wrongs

Phillip Hoose

Claudette Colvin

Ibi Zoboi; Tracey Baptiste; Coe Booth; Dhonielle Clayton; Brandy Colbert; Jay Coles; Lamar Giles; Leah Henderson; Justina Ireland; Varian Johnson; Kekla Magoon; Tochi Onyebuchi; Jason Reynolds; Nic Stone; Liara Tamani; Renée Watson; Rita Williams-Garcia

Black Enough

George Takei; Justin Eisinger; Steven Scott

They Called Us Enemy

Marlon James

A Brief History of Seven Killings

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