Eleven-year-old Isabella’s blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper.

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about HER. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them than ever. And she’s is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?

It seems like nothing can bring Isabella’s family together again–until the worst happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired.

Fifteen-year-old Amari witnesses the murder of her family and the destruction of her remote African village. She endures countless humiliations as she is beaten, branded, and forced to board a slave ship. The atrocities continue as she struggles through endless days of backbreaking work and daily degradation on a plantation. Somehow, through it all, Amari’s hopes and dreams survive because there are moments of kindness from an indentured white girl, Polly and the gentle wife of the plantation owner. Amari and Polly find that by working together freedom could be possible. Award-winning author and educator Sharon M. Draper, known for her popular, contemporary teen novels, successfully tackles historical fiction and received starred reviews from Booklist and the School Library Journal. In this well-researched novel, Draper explores the inter-relationships of those who live on a plantation. “Draper builds the explosive tension to the last chapter, and the sheer power of the story, balanced between the overwhelmingly brutal facts of slavery and Amari’s ferocious survivor’s spirit, will leave [listeners] breathless, even as they consider the story’s larger questions about the infinite costs of slavery and how to reconcile history.”-Booklist, starred review

Keisha Montgomery’s junior year was devastating. Her best friend died, and her ex-boyfriend committed suicide. But Keisha is getting her life back on track. She’s been elected senior class president, and she has met Jonathan Hathaway, the new 23-year-old track coach. Tall and handsome, Jonathan actually talks to Keisha like she’s a woman instead of a girl. But when this forbidden relationship takes a frightening turn, Keisha once again finds herself plunged into the darkness she has worked so hard to escape.

For eighth-grader Delia Douglas, competing in the World Double Dutch Championships with her best friends is a dream that has come true through hours of hard practice. But that dream is now threatened by a terrible secret: Delia can’t read. And unless she finds the courage to reach out and get help, she might never jump in another Double Dutch meet again.

Gerald is only three years old when his mama leaves him alone in the house while she visits her drug dealer. He finds the hot thing she uses to light her cigarettes and in no time, the house is ablaze. Mama is sent to prison, and Gerald goes to live with his Aunt Queen. When he turns nine, Gerald unhappily learns that his mama is being released from jail and wants her son back. Suddenly, he must switch from a loving home to a household dominated by his abusive stepfather. When Gerald learns a terrible secret about his stepfather and the half-sister he has grown to love, he’ll have to find the courage to do what’s right. Author Sharon M. Draper, a National Teacher of the Year Award winner, tackles tough issues like physical and sexual child abuse. Thomas Penny’s empathetic narration makes Forged by Fire and unforgettable listening experience.

A two-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, Sharon Draper has penned numerous modern classics of youth literature. The third installment of her acclaimed Jericho trilogy, Just Another Hero returns to familiar territory for a new spin on her indelible characters. Arielle Gresham is faced with numerous problems at home, and a rash of petty crimes has beset her school. After alienating just about everyone who could help her, Arielle makes a fateful decision to help solve these crimes.

Sequel to Coretta Scott King Award winner The Battle of Jericho, November Blues is a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. November Nelson lost her boyfriend Josh when a high school hazing incident went horribly wrong. She thinks life can’t get worse-then she learns she is carrying Josh’s child. She seeks comfort from Josh’s cousin and best friend Jericho, who himself is trying to hide the pain of his friend’s death by diving into his sports and music. Listeners will get to hear November’s story as well as Jericho’s as they come to terms with Josh’s death.

Melody faces her fears to follow her passion in this stunning sequel to the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling middle grade novel Out of My Mind.

Melody, the huge-hearted heroine of Out of My Mind, is a year older, and a year braver. And now with her Medi-talker, she feels nothing’s out of her reach, not even summer camp. There have to be camps for differently-abled kids like her, and she’s going to sleuth one out. A place where she can trek through a forest, fly on a zip line, and even ride on a horse! A place where maybe she really can finally make a real friend, make her own decisions, and even do things on her own–the dream!

By the light of flickering campfires and the power of thunderstorms, through the terror of unexpected creatures in cabins and the first sparkle of a crush, Melody’s about to discover how brave and strong she really is.

A New York Times bestseller for three years and counting!

“A gutsy, candid, and compelling story. It speaks volumes.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
“Unflinching and realistic.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From award-winning author Sharon Draper comes a story that will forever change how we all look at anyone with a disability, perfect for fans of RJ Palacio’s Wonder.

Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. All because she has cerebral palsy. But she also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. Most people–her teachers, her doctors, her classmates–dismiss her as mentally challenged because she can’t tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

Brief Description: As rehearsals begin for the ballet version of Peter Pan, the teenaged members of an Ohio dance troupe lose their focus when one of their own goes missing. Review Quotes: “A troupe of high school dance students is rocked when one of their number disappears. The Crystal Pointe Dance Academy is a refuge for the group of students who take classes and participate in dance recitals. Each of them–Diamond, Layla, Mercedes and Justin, the only boy in the group–has a different reason to dance, but they all want to earn a role in the upcoming production of Peter Pan. When Diamond disappears during a routine trip to the mall, the close-knit group is thrown into emotional turmoil that mounts as the days go by. As it turns out, Diamond has been lured by a sexual predator dangling the promise of a movie audition and finds herself in a dire situation. While the four main characters alternate narration, this is really a two-sided story: Diamond’s story of abduction and exploitation, and the everyday concerns her friends face back home. The other dancers face tough situations, from relationship conflicts to a parent returning home after a long incarceration. Diamond’s story, though, with elements of suspense and sexual horror, is the more interesting of the two, and readers will find themselves impatient to get back to her ordeal, which is depicted frankly but with sensitivity. Threading through it all is the importance of the arts as a vehicle to get through tough times. By turns pulse-pounding and inspiring.” Review Quotes: “Sharon M. Draper’s PANIC is an outstanding book… [This is] high-interest contemporary fiction — a book that many readers will gulp down in one evening. It is a story that addresses important issues (like never getting into cars with strangers, and never letting your high school boyfriend take photos of you that you wouldn’t want your parents to see). Thus, it is a book that could quite likely save lives and reputations. Some astute readers will recognize how these issues all relate to the objectification of women in our culture. And it is for these reasons that PANIC will be an important addition to middle school and high school collections. With a little luck, there will be lots of young adolescents who read it and learn the consequences of risky behaviors — without having to learn them the hard way.”–Richie Partington, MLIS “Richie’s Picks http: //richiespicks.com ” Publisher Marketing: This gripping and chillingly realistic novel from “New York Times” bestselling author Sharon Draper shows that all it takes is one bad decision for everything to change. Diamond knows not to get into a car with a stranger. But what if the stranger is well-dressed and handsome? On his way to meet his wife and daughter? And casting a movie that very night a movie in need of a star dancer? What then? Then Diamond might make the wrong decision. It s a nightmare come true: Diamond Landers has been kidnapped. She was at the mall with a friend, alone for only a few brief minutes and now she s being held captive, forced to endure horrors beyond what she ever could have dreamed, while her family and friends experience their own torments and wait desperately for any bit of news. From “New York Times “bestselling author Sharon Draper, this is a riveting exploration of power: how quickly we can lose it and how we can take it back.

Coretta Scott King Award-winner Sharon M. Draper updates Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet in this romantic tale of star-crossed lovers out to control their own destiny. Sisi Aisha Johnson’s versatile reading captures the sweeping love and thrilling action of this unforgettable story.

2016 Audie Award Finalist for Middle Grade

Sharon M. Draper presents “storytelling at its finest” (School Library Journal, starred review) in this New York Times bestselling Depression-era novel about a young girl who must learn to be brave in the face of violent prejudice when the Ku Klux Klan reappears in her segregated southern town.

Stella lives in the segregated South–in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community–her world–is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.

Coretta Scott King award-winner and National Teacher of the Year, Sharon M. Draper uses a brilliant variety of styles and voices to tell this compelling first story of her Hazelwood High trilogy. The night that changes everything in Andy’s life begins as a great time. His basketball team wins a big game, and he and his best friend have some cold brews stashed in the car, just waiting for the rolling party to begin. Nothing anyone can say or do afterwards will convince Andy that what happens next isn’t his fault.

At Douglass High School, the Warriors of Distinction throw the best parties, go out with the hottest girls, and breeze through their classes without even trying. When he’s chosen as a pledge, Jericho vows to do whatever it takes to become a full member. But as his initiation becomes more and more harrowing, he faces some uncomfortable choices. Exactly when do the fun and games of initiation cross into the life and death realm of hazing? Award-winning author Sharon M. Draper once again displays her unmatched ability to show the dangers faced by contemporary teens.