What Momma Left Me by Renee Watson

Abstract: After the death of their mother, thirteen-year-old Serenity Evans and her younger brother go to live with their grandparents, who try to keep them safe from bad influences and help them come to terms with what has happened to their family.








Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books, 240 p.

Finding Family by Tonya Bolden

Abstract: Raised in Charleston, West Virginia, at the turn of the twentieth century by her grandfather and aunt on off-putting tales of family members she has never met, twelve-year-old Delana is shocked when, after Aunt Tilley dies, she learns the truth about her parents and some of her other relatives.






Publisher: Bloomsbury, 181 pages

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers

Abstract: Teenage Reese, serving time at a juvenile detention facility, gets a lesson in making it through hard times from an unlikely friend with a harrowing past.









Publisher: Amistad/Harper Teen, 247 p.

The Other Half of My Heart by Sundee Tucker Frazier

Abstract: Twin daughters of interracial parents, eleven-year-olds Keira and Minna have very different skin tones and personalities, but it is not until their African American grandmother enters them in the Miss Black Pearl Pre-Teen competition in North Carolina that red-haired and pale-skinned Minna realizes what life in their small town in the Pacific Northwest has been like for her more outgoing, darker-skinned sister.





Publisher: Delacorte, 296 p.

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Abstract: In New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.







Publisher: Little, Brown and Co., 160 p.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Abstract: Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.








Publisher: Atheneum, 295 p.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Abstract: In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.








Publisher: Amistad, 218 p.