Walter Dean Myers
3) Scorpions
Author
Language
English
Description
After reluctantly taking on the leadership of the Harlem gang, the Scorpions, Jamal finds that his enemies treat him with respect when he acquires a gun--until a tragedy occurs.
4) Riot
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
In 1863, fifteen-year-old Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and a black father, faces ugly truths and great danger when Irish immigrants, enraged by the Civil War and a federal draft, lash out against blacks and wealthy "swells" of New York City.
5) Dope sick
Author
Language
English
Description
Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a weird man who shows different turning points in Lil J's life when he could have made better choices.
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Black Authors: Youth Biographies (SCPL-YS)
Black History Month - ROD Children's
OBD Black History Month (February) - YOUTH
Black History Month - ROD Children's
OBD Black History Month (February) - YOUTH
Formats
Description
Frederick Douglass was a self-educated slave in the South who grew up to become an icon. He was a leader of the abolitionist movement, a celebrated writer, an esteemed speaker, and a social reformer, proving that, as he said, "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
14) Slam!
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
17-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris tells of the year in which he transfers to a magnet school for the arts, a more academically challenging, mostly white school. After being the hot shot star of his Harlem high school team, he has to learn to fit in and be a team player at his new school. He may not be able to do anything about the rest of his life--his relationships with his family and friends, his grandmother's illness, his scholastic difficulties,...
15) Harlem summer
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old Mark Purvis, an aspiring jazz saxophonist, gets a summer job as an errand boy for the publishers of the groundbreaking African American magazine, "The Crisis," but soon finds himself on the enemy list of mobster Dutch Shultz.
16) The Mouse rap
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
During an eventful summer in Harlem, fourteen-year-old Mouse and his friends fall in and out of love and search for a hidden treasure from the days of Al Capone.
18) Harlem: a poem
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
A poem celebrating the people, sights, and sounds of Harlem.