Showing results by narrator "Channie Waites" in All Categories

Polly and her magic book, Spell, have all kinds of adventures together because whatever Polly writes in Spell comes true! But when they join forces to help get the best class pet ever, they get more than they bargained for. Can Polly come up with the right words to save the day?

Side by side with Daddy and Grandma, a young girl is determined to take part in her family’s tradition of baking the perfect peach cobbler—just like Mama used to. From picking peaches to stirring and mixing and kneading the dough, it’s a little bit messy. But with sure hands to guide her, and her mother’s memory hanging sweet in the air, she has the recipe to make Mama proud.

Harriet Adu knows that her brother’s death is her fault. I mean, it’s not actually her fault, but it still kinda is, isn’t it? She would do anything to live in a world where she could take back what she said that morning. Then a strange girl shows up at Harriet’s high school—a girl who loves the same weird books Harriet does, who doesn’t vibe with anyone at school the same way Harriet does—and that different world suddenly seems possible. The girl speaks of a place underneath the subways of New York, where people like them can go and find a home.

Rather than focusing on going to bed—and what kid wants to think about going to bed?—this book explores all of the dreamy, wonderful, strange things the next day might bring. Whimsical, witty, and hopeful, Tomorrow Most Likely is a revolutionary rewriting of a classic goodnight book from bestselling author Dave Eggers and award-winning illustrator Lane Smith.

Inspired by the legendary music of the Motown era, award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford shares a heartwarming lullaby celebrating the powerful love families have for one another. Slip into this soulful dreamland filled with heart and a little musical history.

When eighth grader and aspiring journalist Indigo breaks an important story, exposing an unfair school policy, she's suddenly popular for the first time. The friends who've recently drifted away from her want to hang out again. Then Indigo notices that the school's disciplinary policies seem to be enforced especially harshly with students of color, like her. She wants to keep investigating, but her friends insist she's imagining things.

When everyone else goes to bed, the ones who stay up feel like they’re the only people in the world. As the hours tick by deeper into the night, the familiar drops away and the unfamiliar beckons. Adults are asleep, and a hush falls over the hum of daily life. Anything is possible. It’s a...

Eleven-year-old Ruby is a Black girl who loves studying insects and would do just about anything to be an entomologist, much to the grossed-out dismay of her Gramma. Ruby knows everything there is to know about insects so when she finds the weirdest bug she’s ever seen in her front yard, she makes sure no one is looking and captures it for further study. But then Ruby realizes that the creature isn't just a regular bug. 

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Book Is Anti-Racist, Tiffany Jewell, The Antiracist Kid is the essential guide to antiracism for empowering the young readers in your life! What is racism? What is antiracism? Why are both important to learn about? In this book, systemic...

When a young man’s body is found by the railroad tracks, the murder and its mysterious circumstances threaten the peace and security of a small Florida town. Zora believes she knows who killed Ivory, and she isn’t afraid to tell anyone who’ll listen. Whether Zora is telling the truth or stretching it, she’s a riveting storyteller. Her latest tale is especially mesmerizing because it is so chillingly believable....

In this semiautobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real-life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey, is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with an incarcerated mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction, and her own battle with self-confidence. But when a new teacher at school coordinates a beauty pageant and convinces Vanessa to enter, Vanessa's view of her own world begins to change. 

In the fall of 1955, twelve-year-old Dawn Rae Johnson learns she will be the only one of her friends attending a previously all-white school. However, not everyone supports integration and Dawnie must endure the realities of racism firsthand. In time, Dawnie learns that the true meaning of justice comes from remaining faithful to the integrity within oneself.

James, Rhondell, Sharice, and Marcel are four inner-city students on a quest to build the world’s largest tetrahedron with their math teacher, Mr. Collins. If they succeed, maybe Rhondell will make new friends, Sharice’s foster mother may start to care, James will discover something he’s good at, and Marcel’s dad will finally see that there is more to life than barbecue. Maybe they’ll even end up in the Guinness Book of World Records!

This modern, groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center. When people ask me what this anthology is about, I'm often tempted to give them the complicated answer: It's about race and about how being different from the person you love can matter but how it can also not matter, and it's about Chinese pirate ghosts, black girl vigilantes, colonial India, a flower festival, a garden of poisons, and so, so much else.  

Georgie has no idea what to expect when she, Mama, and Peaches are plopped down in the middle of small-town USA - a.k.a. Bogalusa, Louisiana - where Mama grew up and Great Aunt Vie needs constant care. Georgie wants to help out at the once famous family diner that served celebrities like the Jackson 5 and the Supremes, but everyone is too busy to show her the ropes and Mama is treating her like a baby, not letting her leave her sight. 

G-baby and her younger sister, Peaches, are still getting used to their "blended-up" family. They live with Mama and Frank out in the suburbs, and they haven't seen their real daddy much since he married Millicent. G-baby misses her best friend back in Atlanta, and is crushed that her glamorous new stepsister, Tangie, wants nothing to do with her. G-baby is so preoccupied with earning Tangie's approval that she isn't there for her own little sister when she needs her most. Peaches gets sick - really sick. Suddenly, Mama and Daddy are arguing like they did before the divorce....

Magdalys' connection with the dinosaurs has led the US Army to some important victories, but the Civil War's not over yet, and the squad members find themselves fighting deep in the Louisiana bayou. Then General Ulysses S. Grant himself entrusts Magdalys with a top-secret mission - one that the very success of the Union depends on. Because as the friends will soon find out, the United States has more than one enemy.   

Magdalys and the squad are flying south on pteroback. South to rescue her older brother. South to war. The squad links up with the dino-mounted troops of the Louisiana Native Guard, an all-black regiment in the Union Army fighting to free their people. They're led by General Sheridan, surrounded by enemy forces in Tennessee and desperate for any edge to sway the tide of battle.

It's 1863, and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker. Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker.    

When Zora Neale Hurston and her best friend, Carrie Brown, discover that the town mute can speak after all, they think they’ve uncovered a big secret. But Mr. Polk’s silence is just one piece of a larger puzzle that stretches back half a century to the tragic story of an enslaved girl named Lucia. As Zora’s curiosity leads a reluctant Carrie deeper into the mystery, the story unfolds through alternating narratives.