Showing results by narrator "Tashi Thomas" in All Categories

While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn't surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn't have been more different. Romantic, heart-stirring, and a little mysterious, Zyla & Kai will keep listeners guessing until the last chapter.

Romantic love has been one of the most essential elements of storytelling for centuries. But for Black people in the United States and across the diaspora, it hasn't often been easy to find Black romance joyfully showcased in entertainment media. In this collection, revered authors and sparkling newcomers, librarians and academicians, and avid fans and reviewers consider the mirrors and windows into Black love as it is depicted in the novels, television shows, and films that have shaped their own stories.

Welcome to Queens, New York, where streets echo with languages from all over the globe, subways rumble above dollar stores, trees bloom and topple over sidewalks, and the funky scent of the Atlantic Ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Within one of New York City’s most vibrant and eclectic boroughs, young women of color like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and countless others, attempt to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture in which they come of age. Here, they become friends for life—or so they vow.

A girl who believes in UFOs; a boy who might have finally found his Prince Charming; a hopeful performer who dreams of being cast in her school’s production of The Sound of Music; a misunderstood magician of sorts with a power she doesn’t quite understand. These plotlines and many more compose the eclectic stories found within the pages of this dynamic, exciting, and expansive collection featuring exclusively Black characters.

Black literature is perhaps the most powerful, polarizing force in the modern American zeitgeist. Today—as Black novels draw authoritarian ire, as Black memoirs shape public debates, as Black polemics inspire protest petitions—it’s more important than ever to highlight the places that center these stories: Black bookstores. Traversing teeming metropolises and tiny towns, Prose to the People explores a these spaces, chronicling these Black bookstore's past and present lives.

Teen witch Shay Johnson has one thing on her mind: winning the Brockton Scholarship. It’s her ticket into the magical university of her dreams. There's just one person standing in Shay's way—her nemesis, the brilliant Ana Álvarez.

Travel back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to the sounds of jazz in nightclubs and the 24-hours-a-day bustle of the famous Black neighborhood of Harlem in uptown Manhattan. It was a dazzling time when there was an outpouring of the arts of African Americans - the poetry of Langston Hughes; the novels of Zora Neale Hurston; the sculptures of Augusta Savage; and that brand-new music called jazz as only Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could play it.

For centuries, blue powders and dyes were some of the most sought-after materials in the world. Ancient Afghan painters ground mass quantities of sapphire rocks to use for their paints, while snails were harvested in Eurasia for the tiny amounts of blue that their bodies would release.

From the outside, Kasey James had the perfect life. She had a rich husband, two perfect kids, and a big house in Eastside with a pool in the backyard. None of her friends understand why she left her husband and went back to a stressful job teaching high school. She knows they’ll understand even less when she tells them she’s started dating a woman from Westside. If she tells them, that is. After all, Kasey has her kids to think of, not to mention the upcoming school board election. What if her neighbors withdraw their support when they find out she’s seeing a woman?

Venita Blackburn’s characters bully and suffer, spit and tease, mope and blame. They’re hyperaware of their bodies and fiercely observant, fending off the failures and advances of adults with indifferent ease. In “Biology Class”, they torment a teacher to the point of near insanity, while in “Bear Bear Harvest™”, they prepare to sell their excess fat and skin for food processing. Stark and sharp, hilarious and ominous, these pieces are scabbed, bruised, and prone to scarring.

Award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance, and Black life.

Ten bestselling, critically acclaimed authors deliver a fresh novel of interconnected stories that follows a group of young adults over the course of a few wild, transformative hours at an epic house party. House Party offers a delightful snapshot of diverse classmates getting ready to say goodbye to high school and hello to life’s next chapter—but not before they make their final night together one they’ll never forget!

Budding backyard scientists can start exploring their world with this stunning introduction to these flowery show-stoppers - from seeds to roots to blooms. Learning how flowers grow gives kids beautiful building blocks of science and inquiry.

It's the first day of summer vacation, and Viv Harlow just wants to relax with her friends at the beach before they all go to different high schools next year. She is definitely not interested in visiting her mom's office, even if Director Harlow works at the famous Area 51. But when an alarm sounds beneath the secret base and a whole race of aliens escape, she's about to get much more than she bargained for. Viv, Charlotte, Ray, and Elijah (who Viv is totally not crushing on) will have to work together, gear up with gadgets, and even protect a baby alien.

When Ami Oswald arrives at The Escape—a new, supposedly impossible-to-beat escape room—all she wants it an evening of adventure for her birthday. She deserves it, after all her hard work. But as soon as the game starts, Ami and her four teammates realize they may have gotten more than they bargained for.

From first breakups and romantic vampire encounters to last band performances and the deadly end of a friendship, Firsts and Lasts is an anthology that is just as unpredictable as being a teenager. While each of these stories span different genres and styles, they all perfectly capture the big emotions—confusion, joy, uneasiness, and anticipation—that many teens experience as they grow up.

Butterflies soar in the sunlight. While moths flutter under the moon and stars. Find out more about these mysterious and majestic insects similarities and differences, and their awestriking metamorphosis!

When Alice wins an enormous basket of lollipops in the raffle, she's happy to share her good fortune with friends and classmates, but everyone seems to have a different opinion about how she should divide the bounty. Suddenly, Alice's big prize becomes a big conundrum. Should she give extras to her friends? Should she withhold lollipops from the kids who always hog the tire swing? As she weighs her options, the panic grows. What if there aren't enough to go around!?

After the shocking revelation about her long-lost father, Viv, Elijah, Charlotte, and Ray are determined to save him at any cost. So it's a no-brainer for them to sneak into one of Area 51's finicky time machines to try to bring him back. What could go wrong? Well, how about not being able to track Viv's father through time, almost getting destroyed by the same meteor that killed the dinosaurs, and being chased by strange beings that preserve the proper flow of time?

After saving their parents from an alien attack and becoming official interns at Area 51, Viv Harlow and her friends Charlotte, Ray, and Elijah are ready to keep taking down bad guys and helping test all the fun high-tech gadgets. Instead, they all get put on filing duty (bo-ring!) and kept away from the real action. When Elijah discovers a secret Forbidden Zone hidden away on the base, the group jumps at the chance to explore the new place, only to learn it's home to some of the most elusive creatures on Earth.