"Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring...

Convinced he is too big for a baby-sitter, Roo decides to do whatever he wants, instead of listening to Tigger

Spunky third-grader Dyamonde Daniel misses her old neighborhood, but when she befriends a boy named Free, another new student at school, she finally starts to feel at home.

Dyamonde is angry at her mother for not buying her the shoes she wants, but when she finds out that a classmate is in a worse situation, she is determined to help.

When Gabby's parents separate, her tendency to daydream becomes essential to coping with life's difficuties, which only increase when she moves with her mother to a new home and a new school.

Despite what Dyamonde and Free say, Damaria worries that she is getting fat, until a classmate's problem with diabetes causes her to change her thoughts about body image.

Provides twenty-three poems that capture the joy and happiness of one family's Christmas celebration.

A series of poems describes all the baffling changes at home and at school in twelve-year-old Joylin's transition from tomboy basketball player to not-quite-girly girl.

Alternating poems by a brother and sister convey their feelings about the death of their older brother and the impact it had on their family.

"The first-ever picture book biography on Senator Kamala Harris"--