Toning The Sweep
10 best books like Toning The Sweep (Angela Johnson): Beneath My Mother's Feet, Debbie Harry Sings in French, Thunder Over Kandahar, The Year They Burned the Books, Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales, Estrella's Quinceanera, Sex Education, Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You, Choir Boy, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
| Author | Amjed Qamar |
| ISBN | 1416947280 |
"Our lives will always be in the hands of our mothers, whether we like it or not."
Nazia doesn't mind when her friends tease and call her a good beti, a dutiful daughter. Growing up in a working-class family in Karachi, Pakistan, Nazia knows that obedience is the least she can give to her mother,...
| Author | Meagan Brothers |
| ISBN | 0805080805 |
Johnny’s had kind of a tough life so far, and he’s always been a bit of a freak. His goth look usually includes black nail polish and a little mascara.When he discovers Debbie Harry, the lead singer of Blondie, he not only likes her music but realizes that he kind of, sort of, wants to BE her. He’d like...
| Author | Sharon E. McKay |
| ISBN | 1554512662 |
A powerful novel of enduring friendship set amid the terror and chaos of present-day Afghanistan. Best friends Tamanna and Yasmine cannot believe their good fortune when a school is set up in their Afghan village; however, their dreams for the future are shattered when the Taliban burns down the school...
| Author | Nancy Garden |
| ISBN | 0374386676 |
By the author of Annie on My Mind
When Wilson High Telegraph editor Jamie Crawford writes an opinion piece in support of the new sex-ed curriculum, which includes making condoms available to high school students, she has no idea that a huge controversy is brewing. Lisa Buel, a school board member,...
| Author | Virginia Hamilton |
| ISBN | 0590473700 |
Her Stories by Virginia Hamilton is a wonderful collection of stories that touched my heart. This detailed writing no doubt deserves the Coretta Scott King award nominee. This book demonstrates appreciation for African American culture because these stories have been passed down from generations...
| Author | Malin Alegria |
| ISBN | 0689878109 |
For as long as Estrella Alvarez can remember, her mother has been planning to throw her an elaborate quinceañera for her fifteenth birthday -- complete with a mariachi band, cheesy decorations, and a hideous dress. Just thinking about her quince makes Estrella cringe. But her mother insists that...
Fictional narrative that follows the story of Olivia Sinclair who is recalling her freshman year in a new city and high school. During this year, she meets her first "love", David, in a biology class which turns into an untraditional, exploratory, and eye-opening sex education class. As a project for...
I hadn't really thought of my breasts as "problem breasts." It made them sound like children who wouldn't behave. No bra was going to keep these babies a secret. And those tips for the full-figured girl in the magazines? Please. Even NASA couldn't design a tank suit to camouflage my proportions.
Kayla...
| Author | Charlie Jane Anders |
| ISBN | 1932360816 |
Twelve-year-old choirboy Berry wants nothing more than to remain a choirboy. Choral music and the prospect of divinity thrill him. Desperate to keep his voice from changing, he tries unsuccessfully to castrate himself, and then convinces a clinic to treat him as a transsexual. Berry begins a series...
| Author | Jacqueline Woodson |
| ISBN | 0142405558 |
3 soft snickerdoodles.
Cover Love: No, but I saw there were several editions of this book and many other great covers.
Why I Wanted to Read This:
My library has a bunch of Jacqueline Woodson books and I keep meaning to read some of them. I saw mention of this one in an article so I went...
| Author | Connie Rose Porter |
| ISBN | 0618056785 |
"With authority and grace" (Essence), Imani All Mine tells the story of Tasha, a fourteen-year-old unwed mother of a baby girl. In her ghettoized world where poverty, racism, and danger are daily struggles, Tasha uses her savvy and humor to uncover the good hidden around her. The name she gives her daughter,...
| Author | Marilyn Nelson |
| ISBN | 1886910537 |
George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1864 and was raised by the childless white couple who had owned his mother. In 1877 he left home in search of an education, eventually earning a master's degree. In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to start the agricultural department...
Georgia Hansen can fly. All the women in her family can. They fly at night, when the world sleeps, for no one must discover their secret. Georgia will soon turn 16 and make her first solo flight, taking up her birthright with a special ceremony to mark the occasion. But her anticipation is disrupted with...
| Author | Sherri L. Smith |
| ISBN | 0440229278 |
Lucy Otswego is a big girl who towers over just about everyone and everything in her small Alaskan town, except for her father's horrible reputation as a mean drunk. At 15, she runs away from the cruel classmates who see her only as "the Giant," the embarrassed adults who pity her, and the abusive father...
| Author | Lori Aurelia Williams |
| ISBN | 0689845936 |
So I just made another note to add to my blue notebook later, when the house had cooled off: Tia's nature is boiling out of her like hot soup out of a pot, and Kambia Elaine just flew in from Neptune. Shayla Dubois lives in a Houston neighborhood known as the Bottom, where life is colorful but never easy. She...
| Author | Beth Goobie |
| ISBN | 1551432137 |
Jujube is thrilled when Brent asks her out. She is not so happy when the rumors start flying at school. Pretty soon her name is showing up on bathroom walls and everyone is snickering and sniping. When her mother gets involved, Jujube's reputation takes another hit. Deciding that someone has to take a...
| Author | William Durbin |
| ISBN | 1561646784 |
This heart-warming story is about Bella, a 13-year-old girl in Tampa, Florida, in the 1930s. Her grandfather is a lector at a cigar factory, which means he reads fiction, newspapers, and union news to the workers as they roll cigars. Being a lector is an important role in their Cuban American immigrant...
| Author | Jessamyn West |
| ISBN | 1558615164 |
Cress Delahanty remains one of the most intrepid and beloved teenagers in all American literature. Amid the clotted oil fields and pungent orange groves of rural 1940s California, the young woman explores her family’s citrus ranch, worries about boys, attempts to negotiate the high school social...
| Author | Brock Cole |
| ISBN | 0374410828 |
"Show a little maturity," he said, which I've doped out to mean: Pass all your courses, avoid detection in all crimes and misdemeanors, don't get pregnant.
Celine's father has left her with these instructions. She's not too worried about the last two, but she'll fail English unless she rewrites...
| Author | Bil Wright |
| ISBN | 1416939954 |
Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school. She's also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad, Lahni feels more and more alone. But when Lahni and her mother attend a local church one...
| Author | Walter Dean Myers |
| ISBN | 0385321384 |
WALTER DEAN MYERS returns to the world of 145th Street: Short Stories to show how love can be found, and thrive, in the most unlikely places. Curtis finds love in Iraq as he struggles to stay alive in a war he doesn't want to fight, and Letha discovers her own beauty in the love of her child. There is the "good...
| Author | Tanita S. Davis |
| ISBN | 0375848150 |
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD LAINEY DREAMS of becoming a world famous chef one day and maybe even having her own cooking show. (Do you know how many African American female chefs there aren’t? And how many vegetarian chefs have their own shows? The field is wide open for stardom!) But when her best friend—and...
| Author | Karen English |
| ISBN | 0374424594 |
A distinctive new voice in children's fiction
Francie lives with her mother and younger brother, Prez, in rural Alabama, where all three work and wait. Francie's father is trying to get settled in Chicago so he can move his family up North.
Unfortunately, he's made promises he hasn't...
