Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

When Claire's best friend, Bess, moves away, she becomes the only girl left in her entire school. At first, she thinks she'll be able to deal with this -- after all, the girls' bathroom is now completely hers, so she can turn it into her own private headquarters and draw on the walls. When it comes to soccer games or sailing races, she can face off against any boy. The problem is that her other best friend, Henry, has begun to ignore her. And Webby,...

Lymon's father is, for the time being, at Parchman Farm--the Mississippi State Penitentiary--and his mother, whom he doesn't remember all that much, has moved North. Fortunately, Lymon is being raised by his loving grandparents. Together, Lymon and his grandpops share a love of music, spending late summer nights playing the guitar. But Lymon's world as he knows it is about to dissolve. He will be sent on a journey to two Northern cities far from the...

Nick wants to change his life. For twelve whole years, he's done what his hard-working, immigrant parents want him to do. Now he's looking for his own American dream and he thinks he's found it. The local baseball team is having a batboy contest. Nick's goal-to be a Mudpuppy for a day! But the contest is on a Saturday-the day Nick has to work in his father's shop. There's one other tiny-well, not so tiny-problem. A 2,000-pound rhinoceros named Tank....

In Queens, New York, in 1969, twelve-year-old Julian Twerski writes a journal for his English teacher in which he explores his friendships and how they're effected by girls, a new student who may be as fast as Julian, and especially an incident of bullying.