Urban Fiction for Teens

A debut novelist tells a story that is rich, complex, and achingly real--a heartbreaking tale in which a pregnant teen searches for love and acceptance.

Diego is a sixteen-year-old boy with a problem. He loves his girlfriend, Roxy. And when they suddenly break up due to Diego's own insecurity issues, the boy is crushed. How ever will he win Shorty back?

On the trusty advice of his (crazy) best friend, Diego invents an alter ego known as Dr. Truelove. A sex and relationship e-columnist, Truelove is smooth where Diego is gawky, skilled where Diego is clueless. Truelove is, quite clearly, the way back into Roxy's heart. Or so it seems. . . .

The protagonist of this astonishing debut is a young, African-American teen who can't get a break. Tyrell is living (for now) with his spaced-out mother and little brother in a homeless shelter. He feels he needs to score some money to make things better. Will he end up following in his fathers footsteps?

Sixteen-year-old Kyra is living life on the fast track, until her mother is offered a job that takes Kyra away from her old neighborhood and the drugs and gang violence that go along with it. Kyra hopes starting over in a new place means life can be different--if she can stay one step ahead of trouble.

Now in paperback, this debut from an award-winning high school teacher is thestory of what happens when a star basketball player and a brainy girl pair upfor a class project.

Inspired by her experience teaching in inner-city Brooklyn, van Diepen delivers a striking debut novel that tells the story of one soldier--one boy--on the front lines of the U.S. drug-dealing empire.

A hot new boyfriend from the right side of the tracks ensures sweet and spirited Jayd Jackson will be earning a ton of extra credit in drama this year at South Bay High. Can Jayd and Jeremy's romance stand up to the critics at "Drama High?"

Still recovering from the suicide of her ex-boyfriend, high school senior Keisha is thrilled at the attentions of Jonathan Hathaway, the principal's son. But when a romantic dinner at Jonathan's apartment leads to an attempted rape, Keisha must once again overcome personal trauma and try to rebuild her life. The powerful conclusion to the Hazelwood High trilogy.

After the shooting death of his little brother, 13-year-old Mann tries to escape his emotions. To toughen Mann up and prevent him from becoming a statistic, Mann's father draws from African tradition and abandons Mann and his friend Kee Lee in the woods, leaving them to find their own way home.

An unforgettable narrative collage told in poems
Keesha has found a safe place to live, and other kids gravitate to her house when they just can' t make it on their own. They are Stephie - pregnant, trying to make the right decisions for herself and those she cares about; Jason - Stephie' s boyfriend, torn between his responsibility to Stephie and the baby and the promise of a college basketball career; Dontay - in foster care while his parents are in prison, feeling unwanted both inside and outside the system; Carmen - arrested on a DUI charge, waiting in a juvenile detention center for a judge to hear her case; Harris - disowned by his father after disclosing that he' s gay, living in his car, and taking care of himself; Katie - angry at her mother' s loyalty to an abusive stepfather, losing herself in long hours of work and school.

When Wesley Boone writes a poem for his high school English class and reads it aloud, poetry-slam-style, he kicks off a revolution. Soon his classmates are clamoring to have weekly poetry sessions. One by one, eighteen students take on the risky challenge of self-revelation. Award-winning author Nikki Grimes captures the voices of eighteen teenagers through the poetry they share and the stories they tell, and exposes what lies beneath the skin, behind the eyes, beyond the masquerade.

In this winner of the Printz Medal and Coretta Scott King Award--a companion to the Coretta Scott King Award-winning "Heaven"--Johnson probes right to the heart of the issues involved with teenage pregnancy and fatherhood with precision, grace, and keen insight.)

Check out Mercedes and Dalvin, two beautiful young lovers in a modern day story that is destined to be a classic. Mercedes is truly a daddy's girl. She is his crown jewel and nothing in the world is more precious to him. Mercedes does everything to please her father until she falls in love for the very first time. Dalvin is a rising Kingpin. His family runs the streets of Chicago and he is destined to take over the helm one day. Falling in love is the last thing on his mind until he meets Mercedes Clinton. He's instantly mesmerized by her beauty. She is the girl of his dreams and someone he immediately feels he's destined to spend the rest of his life with. But sometimes in love, things are not meant to be. Parents can sometimes seem to be your enemy and the streets will always have their way of trying to destroy anything good. Will Merce

Hakeem Randall can't take it anymore. First he must leave his friends at Bluford High and move in with his uncle in faraway Detroit. Then things go from bad to worse when Hakeem is forced to share a bedroom with his moody and secretive cousin, Savon.

A young, single mother of two small children, Aisha Ingram's idea of the good life doesn't include going to school or worrying about the future. Then she receives a welfare termination notice. Without those benefits, things don't look good.

Young, black, 16-year-old Steve Harmon, an amateur filmmaker, is on trial for the murder of a Harlem drugstore owner. Steve copes by writing a movie script based on his trial. But despite his efforts, reality is blurred until he can no longer tell who he is or what the truth is. Illustrations.

Sixteen-year-old Keysha Kendall has lived with her emotionally abusive mother all her life. Her world is thrown into chaos when she is forced to move in with her biological father to avoid being placed in foster care. Suddenly Keysha's feeling like an outsider and unsure whether living with her father is where she truly belongs. Original.

When Teddy Anderson??'s little sister Tina is gunned down randomly in a drive-by shooting, the gangstas who rule the streets in the Anderson family??'s rapidly deteriorating neighborhood dismiss the incident as just another case of RP, RT???wrong place, wrong time. According to gangsta logic, Tina doesn???t even count as a statistic. Teddy??'s family is devastated. Mrs. Anderson sinks into deep depression while Pops struggles to run both the household and his declining laundry business. The Andersons are shocked still further when Teddy is arrested and thrown in prison for attempted homicide after his elaborately laid plans for revenge against his sister??'s killer are foiled by the cops. Teddy soon finds himself out of prison on house arrest, and in the capable hands of Officer Mariana Diaz, the smart, tough probation officer assigned to

From the acclaimed author of "Black and White" comes a new novel about an urban youth working to earn his GED and kick his drug habit. Trouble comes to a head one tragic night on a rooftop when his estranged cousin, who has shown up for rehab, is shot by the police.

Fourteen year old Dymond is at a pivotal point in her life... high school. Not only is she faced with the challenges of being a freshman, but also from members in her crew - Kera and Porsha. Both of them have boyfriends however; Dymond has yet to find one. Well, that is until she meets Kyle Banks. Dymond finds herself falling face first, nose wide open for him. Even lying to her mother (with the help of her girls) to be with him, but how many lies can you tell before it catches up to you? Ms. Dymond In The Rough will soon find out!

The acclaimed author of "When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune" now delivers the story of one girl's excruciating struggle to beat the odds. Williams imbues this narrative with an unshakable sense of hope that transcends China's bleak reality.

Welcome to Louis B. Armstrong, New York Citys most prestigious performing arts school, where the gifted, wannabe starlets and It chicks are all on the rise. This fast-paced, drama-filled tale is YA glam lit at its best.