Showing results by narrator "Sisi A. Johnson" in All Categories

During a visit to her grandma's house, a young girl discovers a box of poems in the attic - poems written by her mother when she was growing up. Her mother's family often moved around the United States and the world because her father was in the air force. Over the years her mother used poetry to record her experiences in the many places the family lived. Reading the poems and sharing those experiences through her mother's eyes, the young girl feels closer to her mother than ever before.

Written in free verse, Hidden is a compelling tale about an unlikely friendship between two girls. Darra Monson and Wren Abbott first cross paths when Darra’s deadbeat dad is arrested for theft and kidnapping after he steals a car - unaware that Wren was sitting in the back. Years later, the girls - now teens - attend the same summer camp, and are forced to confront the fateful event that changed their lives.

Meet Mare, a grandmother with flair and a fascinating past. Octavia and Tali are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grandmother over the summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy wigs, and push-up bras, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma. But somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what you see.

Patricia C. McKissack’s books have received numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King, Newbery Honor, and the Caldecott Medal. She teams up with storyteller Onawumi Jean Moss for this suspenseful, but not too scary, story taken from Gullah folklore. Left home alone because of a stomachache, Precious cleverly outwits the Boo Hag by singing her own wonderful little song.

Best-selling author Benilde Little is acclaimed for her funny and compassionate novels. Her Good Hair was selected as one of the 10 best books of 1996 by the Los Angeles Times. In Who Does She Think She Is? she weaves a rich tale of three generations of women. Twenty-six-year-old Aisha is about to wed a wealthy white man. But when she has second thoughts, she, her mother, and her grandmother confront the universal truths that tie lovers and families together.

Violet is a smart, funny, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl in a family of blonds. Her mom is white, and her dad, who died before she was born, was black. She attends a mostly white school where she sometimes feels like a brown leaf on a pile of snow. She's tired of people asking if she's adopted. Now that Violet's 11, she decides it's time to learn about her African American heritage. And despite getting off to a rocky start trying to reclaim her dad's side of the family, she can feel her confidence growing as the puzzle pieces of her life finally start coming together.

Adrienne Bellamy’s debut novel Departures received rave reviews for depicting strong, independent women and delivering unpredictable dialogue. Bellamy brings these spunky ladies together again in Connecting - a story packed with unexpected plot twists and turns. Their reunion is sweet, but life has plenty of new surprises in store for Sheila, Emily and Amber. No matter what obstacles are thrown their way, these indomitable Philly gals prove to be unstoppable.

What's a Brooklyn girl to do when her best friend is away for the whole summer? Aimless and unhappy with her new foster mother, Kate falls into the hands of a stylish It Chick who whips her into fashionable shape. Armed with new confidence and a game plan to get her man, Kate quickly falls under her new bestie's bad influence. Told through Kate's witty, fearless point of view, this two-in-one edition of Hot Girl and Bad Boy present powerful stories from an important voice in young-adult fiction.

Haala, the middle sister, loves to follow along behind her older sister, Sanaa, on their outdoor adventures. But her little sister, Munira, always seems to get in the way. Munira blocks the sun’s kiss, interrupts the wind’s song, and scares away the goldfish’s secrets. Haala can’t keep up with Sanaa when Munira’s on her heels. But when the sisters take a moment to work as a team, they realize that together they can achieve anything--and that together they are sunshine.

Change and transitions are hard, but Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend! demonstrates how, when one experience ends, it opens the door for another to begin. It follows two best friends as they say goodbye to snowmen and hello to stomping in puddles. They say goodbye to long walks, butterflies, and the sun...and hello to long evening talks, fireflies, and the stars. But the hardest goodbye of all comes when one of the friends has to move away. Feeling alone isn't easy, and sometimes new beginnings take time.

After losing her best friend to cancer, Corinne’s life is in flux. She has moved back to Chicago, is considering her next career move (or temp job), and has absolutely no time to look for love - until a mysterious dating app called Met suddenly appears on her phone, and with it, an invitation for Corinne to reconnect with four missed connections from her past. One of them, Met says, is her soul mate...

Nyla Braun has always been called a nerd at her Philadelphia school. But that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her nerdy hobbies, especially when she has best friend Tasha by her side. When a birding tournament between Nyla’s class and a class from a suburban school is announced, Nyla sees her chance to get the respect she deserves. If they win, that is. The Burb Birders will be tough competition.

Assalamu Alaikum, Sister. Welcome. Ameena feels invisible. Ever since she arrived at her school a few months ago, kids look at her like she’s something strange. Is it because of the twists in her hair? Or her brown skin? Then, one day, there’s a new new kid in class. Ameena sees her. Sees her brownness. Sees her hijab. Sees her in ways that the other kids do not. Ameena wants to be her friend … but she doesn’t know how. She can’t seem to find the right words … until one day, when they find those words together.

Eleven-year-old Kylie’s friends seem so much more mature than she is. And with middle school just a summer away, she’s worried her friends might leave her behind, especially because she keeps embarrassing them. So Kylie applies her scientific brain to solve the problem and comes up with the Everybody Experiment.

From budgeting to spending, from good deals to bad value, this new early chapter book series, Dollars to Doughnuts, tackles and explains big financial topics for kids!

Julian has saved his pennies—and dollars—for ages. He keeps them in a safe place, his trusty piggy bank, Wilbur. But now his mom, his dad, even his best friend Lucy say Wilbur isn’t safe enough. They want Julian to move his savings to a bank! A piggy bank is a perfectly safe place to stash cash—isn't it?

Oops! After Julian’s blender blunder, his and Lucy’s cooking club looks like a horror show. Worse yet, the school’s brand-new banner is ruined. Julian feels awful. He doesn’t have money to replace it. With some clever budget tips and the cooking club’s help, maybe Julian and Lucy can find a way to make lots of dough!

Lucy is over-the-moon excited when her aunt gives her a card—the plastic kind!—for her birthday. She knows just what to spend it on. But using the card isn’t as easy as Lucy thought, and she leaves the store empty-handed. Can Lucy and her best friend, Julian, figure out how to fix her financial crisis?