Showing results by narrator "SiSi Johnson" in All Categories

It's time for the annual school talent show, and Frankie is excited to audition with her magic act! She wants to be just like her idol, Adelaide Herrmann, Queen of Magic. But on the day of the audition, Frankie's best friend and Magician's Assistant, Maya, gets a big, scary case of stage fright! How can Maya be Frankie's helper on stage if she can't bring herself to speak in front of their audience? It's up to Frankie Sparks to invent just the perfect thing to help her best friend cope with the spotlight!

It’s springtime in Ms. Cupid’s class, and the entire class is excited to build their very own leprechaun traps. Maybe, if they catch one, they will all get the gift of good luck! And after a few magical clues, it looks like there might be a leprechaun on the loose in Frankie Sparks’s house! Her best friend, Maya, is convinced the leprechaun exists, but Frankie has her doubts - especially when it feels like every trap she designs fails! Will Frankie and Maya find their lucky charm, or figure out how to create some luck all on their own?

Change and transitions are hard, but Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend! demonstrates how, when one experience ends, it opens the door for another to begin. It follows two best friends as they say goodbye to snowmen and hello to stomping in puddles. They say goodbye to long walks, butterflies, and the sun...and hello to long evening talks, fireflies, and the stars. But the hardest goodbye of all comes when one of the friends has to move away. Feeling alone isn't easy, and sometimes new beginnings take time.

Angelica Marie Hutcherson only agreed to write 250 words on the Academic Battle for the Homecoming Edition of the school's newspaper because the editor won't accept any of her other stories. But as Angelica starts to do her research, she comes to a startling realization: The Academic Battle, the Homecoming game, and the class election have all accidentally been scheduled on the same day, and it's too late to do anything about it!

Pages magazine says this collection represents “the absolute best in short literary fiction.” This installment exhibits a fresh batch of immensely talented writers, all of whom exemplify the level of accomplishment that has kept this acclaimed series running strong since 1985. Comprising 20 stories, this rich and varied collection features everything from a fresh take on the classic Southern gothic to a velvet-smooth work of erotic suspense.

Kat and Meg couldn't be more different. Kat's anxiety makes it hard for her to talk to people. Meg hates being alone, but her ADHD keeps pushing people away. But when the two girls are thrown together for a yearlong science project, they discover they do have one thing in common: They're both obsessed with the same online gaming star and his hilarious videos. It might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship - if they don't kill each other first.

Assalamu Alaikum, Sister. Welcome. Ameena feels invisible. Ever since she arrived at her school a few months ago, kids look at her like she’s something strange. Is it because of the twists in her hair? Or her brown skin? Then, one day, there’s a new new kid in class. Ameena sees her. Sees her brownness. Sees her hijab. Sees her in ways that the other kids do not. Ameena wants to be her friend … but she doesn’t know how. She can’t seem to find the right words … until one day, when they find those words together.

Sixteen-year-old Crystal knows she's blessed. She is drop-dead gorgeous and in the beginning stages of a glamorous career as a model in New York City. At first, modeling is exciting. But soon, her life becomes less and less about her, and more and more about her body. Crystal wonders if her new life is worth giving up everything - her friends, her beliefs, and her self-respect.

Award-winning author Janice N. Harrington presents a book about a spunky girl with a bad habit. Meet the Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County. Almost the first thing she thinks about every morning is chasing the farm’s chickens. She sneaks up on them real slow, then...SQUAWK! But the Chicken-Chasing Queen is about to learn why the prettiest hen on the farm doesn’t want to get caught.

The 19th addition of this annual anthology exhibits a collection of short fiction from award-winning Southern authors and rising stars including Edward P. Jones and Silas House. Each story’s derivation is explained in an illuminating note from the author following the rich and entertaining tales.

A fierce teen game developer battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for black gamers. By day, 17-year-old Kiera Johnson is a college student and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. By night, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game Slay.

During a visit to her grandma's house, a young girl discovers a box of poems in the attic - poems written by her mother when she was growing up. Her mother's family often moved around the United States and the world because her father was in the air force. Over the years her mother used poetry to record her experiences in the many places the family lived. Reading the poems and sharing those experiences through her mother's eyes, the young girl feels closer to her mother than ever before.

Kaia is the brave type. Like hottest-hot-pepper brave. But there is one thing that scares her: bees! And right now, thousands of bees live on her roof because Kaia's dad is a beekeeper. Her dad says that the world needs bees and that’s why they are beekeepers. But only he goes on the roof, not Kaia - unless she can find a way to be the brave girl she always says she is. Kaia’s small courageous steps - and her tiny insect neighbors - are depicted with great empathy and charm.

Departures, from Adrienne Bellamy, has been compared to such classics as The Women of Brewster Place. This novel is the tale of 10-year-old Amber, whose mother has all but abandoned her and her sisters in an effort to find a man to curl up with at night. Despite her abusive home situation, Amber still has other role models in her Philadelphia neighborhood.

Julian has saved his pennies—and dollars—for ages. He keeps them in a safe place, his trusty piggy bank, Wilbur. But now his mom, his dad, even his best friend Lucy say Wilbur isn’t safe enough. They want Julian to move his savings to a bank! A piggy bank is a perfectly safe place to stash cash—isn't it?

Ryan Hart and her family are back in another instalment of stories about a Black girl finding her way and her voice as she grows through change and challenges. In this book, Ryan finds herself waiting on lots of things - like for her new sister to be born healthy, for her new recipes to turn out right, for that summer camp trip to go better than she fears! And of course, Ryan is facing these new challenges and new experiences in her classic style - with a bright outlook and plenty of spirit!

Best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates returns with an incendiary novel that illuminates the tragic impact of sexual violence, racism, brutality, and power on innocent lives and probes the persistence of stereotypes, the nature of revenge, the complexities of truth, and our insatiable hunger for sensationalism.

It's 1944, and in a small Southern town, 11-year-old Ella spends her summers running wild with her cousins and friends. But life isn't always so sunny. The deep racial tension that simmers beneath their town's peaceful facade never quite goes away, and Ella misses her mama - a beautiful jazz singer who lives in Boston.

Lucy is over-the-moon excited when her aunt gives her a card—the plastic kind!—for her birthday. She knows just what to spend it on. But using the card isn’t as easy as Lucy thought, and she leaves the store empty-handed. Can Lucy and her best friend, Julian, figure out how to fix her financial crisis?

Adrienne Bellamy’s debut novel Departures received rave reviews for depicting strong, independent women and delivering unpredictable dialogue. Bellamy brings these spunky ladies together again in Connecting - a story packed with unexpected plot twists and turns. Their reunion is sweet, but life has plenty of new surprises in store for Sheila, Emily and Amber. No matter what obstacles are thrown their way, these indomitable Philly gals prove to be unstoppable.