""Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably-priced furniture, making a life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a...

During his busy day, Kenny gets dressed, fights his fear of the vacuum cleaner, gets a soccer lesson from his sister, and prepares for bed, with his loving family always near.

A novel based on the events in the life of a young slave girl from Maryland who endures all kinds of mistreatment and cruelty, including being separated from her family, but who eventually escapes to freedom in Canada.

In a small Louisiana mill town in 1940, Jolene does not want her Momma to marry the logger who is courting her, but it seems that even her most defiantly bad behavior cannot make him go away.

Black sharecropping family face and overcome hardships and injustice. Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and with the help of the devoted dog Sounder.

While his human Elliot adjusts to his new home and stepfamily, Gizmo, an evil genius guinea pig, searches for a new evil lair where he can plot to take over the world, but Gizmo is constantly thwarted by Elliot's little stepsister Jasmine (who likes to play dress-up), Abuela (who may or may not like to eat cavies), and Wedgie (a Corgi superhero and Gizmo's nemesis).

After spending the Summer of 1968 with their mother and the Black Panthers, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern return home to Brooklyn with a new feeling of independence, but they discover their father has a new girlfriend, Uncle Darnell has come home from Vietnam a changed man, and Big Ma still expects Delphine to take care of everything. Feeling overwhelmed, Delphine writes to her mother, who reminds her to enjoy being eleven and not grow up too fast.

With the big game coming up, Mo Jackson, the shortest member of the basketball team, is determined to learn how to pass the ball in time to help his team win.

"An ailing grandfather and his helpful granddaughter play a unique game of seek and find"--

After a fellow slave is beaten to death, Sadie and her family flee the plantation for freedom through the Underground Railroad.