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10 best books like Playground (50 Cent): Boy Kills Man, Trash Can Days: A Middle School Saga, The Knife and the Butterfly, Beneath a Meth Moon, Damaged, No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, Something to Hold, Jumped, Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas, Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court

Boy Kills Man
AuthorMatt Whyman
ISBN0060746653
In the South American town of Medellin, where drug dealers rule and hope is scarce, young assassins are in large supply. Take Shorty and Alberto: two hardened best friends from poor homes whose biggest dream is to see a live soccer match. These boys understand that the one true power they will ever possess...
Trash Can Days: A Middle School Saga
AuthorTeddy Steinkellner
Jake Schwartz is not looking forward to middle school. Puberty feels light-years away; he’s not keen on the cool clothes or lingo; and he has the added pressure of preparing for his bar mitzvah. The only saving grace is that Danny Uribe, his lifelong best friend, will be by his side…

Or will...
The Knife and the Butterfly
AuthorAshley Hope Pérez
ISBN0761361561
After a marijuana-addled brawl with a rival gang, 16-year-old Azael wakes up to find himself surrounded by a familiar set of concrete walls and a locked door. Juvie again, he thinks. But he can't really remember what happened or how he got picked up. He knows his MS13 boys faced off with some punks from...
Beneath a Meth Moon
AuthorJacqueline Woodson
ISBN0399252509
Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she’s still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel’s new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain...
Damaged
AuthorKia DuPree
ISBN0446547751
Camille Logan feels trapped. After she is sexually and emotionally abused by her foster parents, she turns to the one person she knows she can trust--her boyfriend Chu, a mid-level drug dealer. But when life finally starts looking up for Camille, Chu is brutally murdered. Again feeling abandoned and...
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller
AuthorVaunda Micheaux Nelson
ISBN0761361693
Coretta Scott King award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson's great uncle was Lewis Micheaux, owner of the famous National Memorial African Bookstore. Located in the heart of Harlem, New York, from 1939 to 1975, Micheaux's bookstore became the epicenter of black literary life and a rallying...
Something to Hold
AuthorKatherine Schlick Noe
ISBN0547558139
Can a white girl feel at home on an Indian reservation?

Based on the author’s childhood experience in the early 1960s, this novel centers on Kitty, whose father is a government forester at Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon. Kitty is one of only two white kids in her class, and the Indian kids...
Jumped
AuthorRita Williams-Garcia
ISBN0060760915
The wrong angle Trina: "Hey," I say, though I don't really know them. The boyed-up basketball girl barely moves. The others, her girls, step aside. It's okay if they don't speak. I know how it is. They can't all be Trina. Dominique: Some stupid little flit cuts right in between us and is like, "Hey." Like...
Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas
AuthorRussell Freedman
ISBN0618663916
Many generations of American schoolchildren were taught that Columbus discovered America, and a holiday reminds us every October. But historical investigation in recent years has shown us otherwise. There is evidence that adventurers, explorers, traders, and nomads from various parts of the...
Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court
AuthorMarc Aronson
ISBN0763645621
Pass! Shoot! Swish! An all-star team of YA authors scores spectacularly with an action-packed anthology about street basketball.

It’s one steamy July day at the West 4th Street Court in NYC, otherwise known as The Cage. Hotshot ESPN is wooing the scouts, Boo is struggling to guard the weird...
Planet Middle School
AuthorNikki Grimes
ISBN1599902842
For twelve years, Joylin Johnson's life has been just fine, thank you very much. A game of basketball with the boys-especially her friend Jake-was all it took to put a smile on her face. Baggy jeans, T-shirt, and hair in a ponytail were easy choices. Then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down, and...
Addie on the Inside
AuthorJames Howe
The Gang of Five is back in this much-anticipated follow-up to The Misfits and Totally Joe . Addie Carle, the only girl in the group of friends, is outspoken, opinionated, and sometimes…just a bit obnoxious. But as seventh grade progresses, Addie’s not so sure anymore about who she is. It seems her...
The Legend of Buddy Bush
AuthorShelia P. Moses
ISBN1416907165
The day Uncle Goodwin "Buddy" Bush came from Harlem all the way back home to Rehobeth Road in Rich Square, North Carolina, is the day twelve-year-old Pattie Mae Sheals' life changes forever. Pattie Mae adores and admires Uncle Buddy -- he's tall and handsome and he doesn't believe in the country stuff...
Pinned
AuthorSharon G. Flake
ISBN0545057183
Autumn and Adonis have nothing in common and everything in common. Autumn is outgoing and has lots of friends. Adonis is shy and not so eager to connect with people. But even with their differences, the two have one thing in common--they're each dealing with a handicap. For Autumn, who has a learning disability,...
Guantanamo Boy
AuthorAnna Perera
ISBN0141326077
Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western...
The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter
AuthorJohn Gosselink
ISBN0810989778
Designed like a case file, chock-full of notes, journal entries, letters, e-mails, illustrations, and more, The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter is a hilarious middle-grade novel that argues why Thaddeus should be released from his in-school suspension and explains the unbelievable circumstances...
Long Story Short
AuthorSiobhán Parkinson
ISBN1596436476
From Ireland's first laureate for children's literature comes a story of abuse and neglect told with sincerity, heart, and a healthy dose of humor.   Jono has always been able to cope with his mother's drinking, but when she hits his little sister Julie, he decides it's time for them to run away. Told...
Secret Saturdays
AuthorTorrey Maldonado
ISBN0399251588
Read Torrey Maldonado's posts on the Penguin Blog and the new Penguin Community.

A poignant look into one fatherless twelve-year-old’s struggles with friendship and trust. Sean is Justin’s best friend, at least Justin thought he was. But lately Sean has been acting differently. Sean’s...
Shadows Of Guilt
AuthorAnne Schraff
ISBN1616510013
Themes: Hi-Lo, High school, neighborhoods, family, loyalty, friendship, urban teen fiction, gangs, drive-by shooting, mystery, suspense, alcohol abuse. Written for young adults, the Urban Underground series confronts issues that are of great importance to teens, such as friendship, loyalty,...
Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement
AuthorRick Bowers
ISBN1426305958
The Spies of Mississippi is a compelling story of how state spies tried to block voting rights for African Americans during the Civil Rights era. This book sheds new light on one of the most momentous periods in American history.

Author Rick Bowers has combed through primary-source materials...
Mendel's Daughter: A Memoir
AuthorMartin Lemelman
Sometimes your memories are not your own.Just as Art Spiegelman's "Maus" presented a dramatic new framework from which to view the Holocaust, "Mendel's Daughter" combines an unforgettable true story with elegant, haunting illustrations to shed new light on one of history's darkest periods. In...
Black Boy White School
AuthorBrian F. Walker
ISBN0061914835
In a hard-hitting novel about fitting in—or not—Anthony “Ant” Jones gets transported from his East Cleveland hood to an almost all-white prep school and has to figure out where he belongs...before he loses himself entirely. Black Boy White School is a memorable debut that will appeal...
The Burning House: What Would You Take?
AuthorFoster Huntington
ISBN0062123483
“Fascinating….Provocative.”
—New York Times

“Answering this question reveals a great deal about your personality, priorities and interests.”
—The Guardian (UK)

If your house were on fire, what would you take? Foster Huntington has collected answers...
Be Light Like a Bird
AuthorMonika Schröder
ISBN1623707498
After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Wren finds her life thrown into upheaval. And when her mother decides to pack up the car and forces Wren to leave the only home she's ever known, the family grows even more fractured. As she and her mother struggle to build a new life, Wren must confront issues...
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