This little-known poem by the beloved poet is filled with playful rhymes that are complemented by vibrant watercolors.

Tow-Kaye just learned that the love of his life is pregnant--and though he knows what the right thing to do is, he's scared to death to do it. Jeffrey hates having a mom who dresses like a teenager, but when another sexy mom moves in next door--well, that's a different kind of problem. In these and twenty-two other short stories and poems, readers plumb the inner lives of African American teenage boys.

Alice is fifteen, with hair as red as fire and skin as pale as bone. Something inside Alice is broken: she remembers words, but struggles to speak them. Still, Alice knows that words are for sharing, so she pins them to posters in tucked-away places: railway waiting rooms, fish-and-chips shops, quiet corners. Manny is sixteen, with a scar from shoulder to elbow. Something inside Manny is broken, too: he once was a child soldier, forced to do terrible,...