Showing results by narrator "Ruffin Prentiss" in All Categories

Darrian dreams of writing for the New York Times. To hone his skills and learn more about the power of words, he enrolls in Mr. Ward's class, known for its open-mic poetry and boys vs. girls poetry slam. Everyone in class has something important to say, and in sharing their poetry, they learn that they all face challenges and have a story to tell - whether it's about health problems, aging out of foster care, being bullied for religious beliefs, or having to take on too much responsibility because of an addicted parent.

In this biography of Chester B. Himes (1909-1984), Lawrence P. Jackson depicts the improbable life of the controversial writer whose novels confront sexuality, racism, and social injustice. In absorbing detail, Jackson explores Chester Himes's middle-class origins, eight years in prison, painful odyssey as a Black World War II-era artist, and escape to Europe, where Himes became internationally famous for his Harlem detective series.

Charlie isn't looking forward to sixth grade. If he starts sixth grade, chances are he'll finish it. And when he does, he'll grow older than the brother he recently lost. Armstrong isn't looking forward to sixth grade, either. When his parents sign him up for Opportunity Busing to a white school in the Hollywood Hills, all he wants to know is "what time in the morning will my alarm clock have the opportunity to ring?" When these two land at the same desk, it's the Rules Boy next to the Rebel.

They said it was the "Curse of the Bambino". They said "the bad guys won". Now one of baseball’s all-time good guys, New York Mets legend Mookie Wilson, tells his side of the story - from the ground ball through Bill Buckner’s legs that capped the miraculous 1986 World Series Game Six rally against the Boston Red Sox to the rise and fall of a team that boasted such outsize personalities as Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez, Dwight Gooden, Gary Carter, Lenny Dykstra, and Davey Johnson.

The era is 1988, Detroit is the scene, and crack is the movement. It's a time when young black men can become self-made millionaires seemingly overnight by selling dope. The crack era has become to blacks what Prohibition was to the Italians - a time to get over! It's a time that inspires generations of street dreams.... Fresh out of high school, young Wink has but one thing on his mind - rollin' fresh. Infatuated by all the trappings of the game, Wink and his B-boy crew jump headfirst into the ills of the drug trade, determined to taste the good life.

He says: Omar "T-Diddy" Smalls has got it made - a full football ride to UMiami, hero-worship status at school, and pick of any girl at West Charleston High. She says: Football, shmootball. Here's what Claudia Clarke cares about: Harvard, the poor, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the staggering teen pregnancy rate, investigative journalism...the list goes on. She does not have a minute to waste on Mr. T-Diddy Smalls and his harem of bimbos.

Unlike the majority of Logan County's residents, Missus Nedraw of the Rorrim Mirror Emporium remembers the time freeze from The Last Last-Day-of-Summer and how Otto and Sheed took her mirrors without permission in order to fix their mess. Usually that's an unforgivable offense, punishable by a million-year sentence. However, she's willing to overlook the cousins' misdeeds if they help her with a problem of her own. One of her worst prisoners has escaped, and only the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County can help bring the fugitive to justice.

Meet Marcel and Sabrina, a hitman and a bookkeeper for the Mob. The couple should have never met, let alone fallen in love. When they decide to go against the grain, all hell breaks loose. Somebody wants them dead; they just don't know who. It could be Leo, Marcel's jealous older brother; Othello, Sabrina's crooked father; or it could be The Family, a roundtable of the top contenders in the underworld. There is no honor amongst thieves. Marcel and Sabrina will find the old adage to be true the hard way.

It's Halloween: Candy-snatching time. For the past few years, twelve-year-old Jonas and his friends have competed to see how much candy they can snatch from unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. No one’s supposed to get hurt. So Jonas is taken by surprise when one of his smaller targets fights back against his candy-snatching attempt. He’s even more surprised when he starts to receive anonymous notes from someone who seems to know what happened that night.

Malcolm Montgomery is the new kid at Shirley Chisholm Charter Middle School. In no time at all, he’s been slapped with the weird kid label. Is it because he's a foster kid who's been in nine homes? Or maybe because he burps when he gets nervous…which is often? Malcolm has a plan to finally get adopted by a forever family before it's too late. But then on Visiting Professionals' Day, his school invites Dr. Alphonse Hatch, president of Hatch-ED—one of the fastest-growing artificial intelligence companies in the state—to give a presentation.

Kaiden and Alicia Moore, originally from North Carolina, were enjoying a life full of love and passion. As a young, beautiful, and upwardly mobile professional couple who had made their home in New York City, they were busy balancing their careers with the demands of a new marriage --- which as fate would have it, included an unexpected bundle of joy.

In an instant, Ossie Brown’s entire future is in jeopardy when a torn ACL ends his promising basketball career. Now that basketball is no longer a major part of his identity, Ossie—a Black teen who doesn’t come from wealth and privilege—must navigate his new place in the social and academic ecosystems of his affluent, predominantly white school.

Things were supposed to change for sophomore year. Things were supposed to be—I don't know—easier somehow. At least with Jasmine. Instead it's more of a struggle than ever. At least last year when she was with Nick Starks I knew where I stood. Derrick Bowen's sophomore year is a grind. He's been looking forward to the basketball season all summer, but his girlfriend Jasmine leaves him for putting too much focus on basketball. The promise his Marion East basketball team showed at the end of last season isn't materializing. And the sweet jumper D-Bow worked on all summer just isn't falling.

Junior year. Derrick Bowen has put in two good years getting ready for this season. He put in the work and earned his coach's trust and his role as the starting point guard for Marion East. Marion has never won the Indiana state championship, but this year the team is Derrick's. And Derrick is good. Opponents worry when Derrick—D-Bow when he's pounding the rock—steps onto the court. Major colleges work feverishly to recruit him. Derrick is ready to run teams off the court. If only he could get on the court and stay on it.

In Indiana, basketball is the next thing to religion. Especially for inner-city black kids like Derrick Bowen. He's a 6'3" freshman, lightning quick, and he can slam the rock. He wants to start at point guard for Marion High, but senior Nick Starks has that nailed down. Besides, the coach is old school. He thinks D-Bow needs to work on his game, his shot, and his attitude. That means bench time. And that's when Hamilton Academy, the elite school in the suburbs, comes sniffing around. They want D-Bow for the next three years. His mom wants no part of that.

In 1920, as art and writing flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois published The Brownies’ Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun—the first periodical for African American youth, collecting original art, stories, letters, and activities to celebrate their identities and inspire their imaginations and ambitions. Building upon Du Bois’s mission, esteemed professor and scholar Karida L. Brown and celebrated artist Charly Palmer reimagine the groundbreaking publication with The New Brownies’ Book, gathering the work of more than 50 contemporary Black writers.

Eli dresses up in his best clothes, Mama gathers the mayflowers, Papa straightens his hat, and together they join the crowds filling the streets of Charleston with bouquets, crosses, and wreaths. Joined by abolitionists, missionaries, teachers, military officers, and a sea of faces black, brown, and white, they march as one and sing for all those who gave their lives fighting for freedom during the Civil War.

August Wilson grew up open to the creative inspiration in everything he encountered: in library books, in music, in artworks, in the lively conversations overheard in the restaurants and barbershops lining the Pittsburgh neighborhood of his childhood. August paid attention. He listened. And when he got older, he got ideas about what to do with everything he’d seen and heard—ideas that would make him one of the greatest playwrights in American history.

On Rhodenroode Island, a remote colony of the Homeland, there sits a Mission on the Hill, where boys are taken in and taught the ways of the faith. Darian is the only trainee of his race there, and he doesn’t remember how he came to the Mission. All he remembers are brown hands and the belly of a ship. Life among the other boys and the cantankerous Brothers is not always easy, but Darian is determined to live up to the lofty calling the leaders of the Mission have laid out for him: that one day he will carry the Sacred Word to places it has yet to reach.

Inspired by the famous White House photograph of five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia touching then-president Barack Obama’s hair, Weatherford’s powerful text is an ode to all the things that make Black and brown kids beautiful. Young listeners will learn about many inspiring figures in Black history up to the present day, gaining confidence in their abilities and their cultural legacy as they learn.