Showing results by author "Alex Wheatle" in All Categories

A thrilling and heart-warming tale about family, friendship and football from award-winning author, Alex Wheatle. Fourteen-year-old aspiring footballer Kadeen Best is sent to stay with her Aunt Mel in London after her beloved older brother is tragically killed and she identifies the shooter - a...

In this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed writer Alex Wheatle shows how music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse and his imprisonment as a young man protesting against systemic racism and police brutality. Abandoned as a baby to the British care system, Alex Wheatle grows up...

Brought to you by Penguin. Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and...

Cornell is having a bad time. Kicked out of secondary school for a fight he didn't start, he finds himself in a Pupil Referral Unit. Here he makes friends with one of the Sinclair family. You don't mess with the Sinclairs, and when Ryan Sinclair demands Cornell comes with him to teach another student some respect, Ryan witnesses something that will change his life. Torn between protecting his family and himself, Cornell has one hell of a decision to make.

Welton Blake has done it! He's asked out Carmella McKenzie—the best-looking girl in school—and she's only gone and said yes! But just as he thinks his luck is starting to change, Welton's phone breaks, kick-starting a series of unfortunate and humiliating events. With bullies to avoid, girls ready to knock him out and all the drama with his mum and dad, life for Welton is about to go very, very wrong.

Kemosha and her brother have lived their whole lives in slavery. Sold away to work in lawless Port Royal, Kemosha takes her chance to escape brutal treatment. With fortune on her side, Kemosha befriends Ravenhide, a man with a mysterious past who teaches her the art of swordfighting, and introduces her to the beautiful runaway Isabella.

She wondered what kind of world she had brought her two daughters into, the tedious cycle of rural Jamaican life. No chance for them to set off upon adventures and see the outside world. But sisters Jenny and Hortense Rodney, do get to see the outside world. Growing up in rural Claremont, working amid the hustle and bustle, lawn parties and houses of joy in Trenchtown, the two sisters take a chance and move to England with their husbands, that far-off land of riches, where they settle down to motherhood among the jazz cafés and bleak streets of Brixton.

Brenton Brown is 16 years old. A mixed race youth, Brenton has lived in a children's home all his life. Being reunited with his mother is the best thing that has happened to Brenton. But a strange series of events soon push him to the edge...

Juliet is consumed with guilt knowing that her half-brother, Brenton, grew up in children's homes while she received all her mother's love. She marries Clayton, a successful banker, to please her mother. But secretly Clayton has always suspected that there is something between Juliet and her half-brother. Meanwhile, Juliet and Brenton try to stay away from what they know is a forbidden love...

'Round these ends, it's hard to hold on to your dreams Life's a constant hustle for Mo. Her mum's boyfriend Lloyd is just another man who likes to beat down women; the South Crong streets are fraught with hazards and nasty Gs; and when it comes to matters of the heart...she's still hung up on Sam. No wonder she's vexed so much of the time. Thank god her sistrens, Elaine and Naomi, are on her side: if one of them falls, then they all fall.

New from the winner of the Guardian Children's Book Award: Home Girl is the story of Naomi, a teenage girl growing up fast in the care system. It is a wholly modern story which sheds a much-needed light on what can be an unsettling life - and the consequences that can follow when children are treated like pawns on a family chessboard. Home Girl is fast-paced and funny, tender, tragic and full of courage - just like Naomi. It is award-winning author Alex Wheatle's most moving and personal novel to date.

Life's a constant hustle for Mo. Her mum's boyfriend, Lloyd, is just another man who likes to beat down women; the South Crong streets are fraught with hazards and nasty G's; and when it comes to matters of the heart...she's still hung up on Sam. No wonder she's vexed so much of the time. Thank god her sistrens, Elaine and Naomi, are on her side: if one of them falls then they all fall. But when badness goes down and a life is left hanging in the balance, Mo has to face her hot urge for revenge...and she might end up losing more than she wins.

Living on the South Crongton council estate has its worries - and life for McKay has been even tougher since his mum died. His dad has been working all hours to keep the bailiffs from their door. His brother is always out riding the streets at night, tempting trouble. And now, having strayed off his turf on a 'heroic' (if misguided) mission to help out a girl, McKay finds himself facing a friend's crazy ex-boyfriend, some power-tripping hood-rats and a notoriously violent gangster with a vendetta which hits too close to home.

Venetia King is the hottest girl at school. Too bad Lemar is the second shortest guy in his year. Everyone calls him Liccle Bit, and his two best friends, McKay and Jonah, never tire of telling him he has no chance with girls. Things aren't much better at home. His mum is permanently hassled, his sister a frustrated single mum and his dad moved out years ago. Liccle Bit wishes he could do something - anything! - to make life better. A new phone would be a start....

Set in 1981, the year of the Brixton riots, the novel is a gripping thriller in a society on the edge of explosion. Wheatle focusses on Biscuit and his posse as a way to introduce the whole community. Biscuit lives with his mother, brother and sister. He helps out by hustling on the frontline for the South London badman, Nunchaks. He doesn’t want to be doing this for the rest of his life but it’s difficult to get out of the trap. As the patience of the community breaks and the riots begin to erupt, Biscuit has to make a choice that could change his life forever.

Things have been quiet in South Crongton. It's been an age since anyone last spotted Manjaro, South Crong's most notorious warlord. But there have been murmurs that something is coming. Jonah is the fastest sprinter in South Crong, and has his sights set on an Olympic Medal one day. But with his dad now jobless, and his parents constant fighting because they can't make ends meet, Jonah has more on his mind than the North/South Crong gang war games.

Boy from the Hills' parents are going away a week before Christmas, so in true Crongton style, McKay and the rest of his friends persuade him to throw a house party. But, Boy from the Hills must keep his dad's precious Aston Martin safe, as well as look after his neighbour's dog until Boxing Day.