Showing results by narrator "Tashi Thomas" in All Categories

Brown Girls dives deep into the lives of a group of young women of colour growing up in Queens, New York. Here, streets echo with many languages, subways rumble above dollar stores and the briny scent of the ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Here, girls like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and many others, struggle to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture they come of age in. Here, they become friends for life. Or so they vow.

From the outside, Kasey James had the perfect life. She had a rich husband, two perfect kids, and a big house in Eastside with a pool in the backyard. None of her friends understand why she left her husband and went back to a stressful job teaching high school. She knows they’ll understand even less when she tells them she’s started dating a woman from Westside. If she tells them, that is. After all, Kasey has her kids to think of, not to mention the upcoming school board election. What if her neighbors withdraw their support when they find out she’s seeing a woman?

From first breakups and romantic vampire encounters to last band performances and the deadly end of a friendship, Firsts and Lasts is an anthology that is just as unpredictable as being a teenager. While each of these stories span different genres and styles, they all perfectly capture the big emotions—confusion, joy, uneasiness, and anticipation—that many teens experience as they grow up.

Romantic love has been one of the most essential elements of storytelling for centuries. But for Black people in the United States and across the diaspora, it hasn't often been easy to find Black romance joyfully showcased in entertainment media. In this collection, revered authors and sparkling newcomers, librarians and academicians, and avid fans and reviewers consider the mirrors and windows into Black love as it is depicted in the novels, television shows, and films that have shaped their own stories.

It's the first day of summer vacation, and Viv Harlow just wants to relax with her friends at the beach before they all go to different high schools next year. She is definitely not interested in visiting her mom's office, even if Director Harlow works at the famous Area 51. But when an alarm sounds beneath the secret base and a whole race of aliens escape, she's about to get much more than she bargained for. Viv, Charlotte, Ray, and Elijah (who Viv is totally not crushing on) will have to work together, gear up with gadgets, and even protect a baby alien.

Travel back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to the sounds of jazz in nightclubs and the 24-hours-a-day bustle of the famous Black neighborhood of Harlem in uptown Manhattan. It was a dazzling time when there was an outpouring of the arts of African Americans - the poetry of Langston Hughes; the novels of Zora Neale Hurston; the sculptures of Augusta Savage; and that brand-new music called jazz as only Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could play it.

After the shocking revelation about her long-lost father, Viv, Elijah, Charlotte, and Ray are determined to save him at any cost. So it's a no-brainer for them to sneak into one of Area 51's finicky time machines to try to bring him back. What could go wrong? Well, how about not being able to track Viv's father through time, almost getting destroyed by the same meteor that killed the dinosaurs, and being chased by strange beings that preserve the proper flow of time?

A girl who believes in UFOs; a boy who might have finally found his Prince Charming; a hopeful performer who dreams of being cast in her school’s production of The Sound of Music; a misunderstood magician of sorts with a power she doesn’t quite understand. These plotlines and many more compose the eclectic stories found within the pages of this dynamic, exciting, and expansive collection featuring exclusively Black characters.

After saving their parents from an alien attack and becoming official interns at Area 51, Viv Harlow and her friends Charlotte, Ray, and Elijah are ready to keep taking down bad guys and helping test all the fun high-tech gadgets. Instead, they all get put on filing duty (bo-ring!) and kept away from the real action. When Elijah discovers a secret Forbidden Zone hidden away on the base, the group jumps at the chance to explore the new place, only to learn it's home to some of the most elusive creatures on Earth.

A joyful rhyming book that encourages children to not only value all people but to also make room for their differences in order to make a better, brighter, and more beautiful world, from the New York Times best-selling author of Different—A Great Thing to Be!

A fresh take on celebrating the beauty of natural textured hair, HAIR TO SHARE tackles the difficulty of childhood medical hair loss and the impact empathy and generosity can have on one's self-esteem. Suri was born with more hair than anyone had ever seen on a baby. As she grew, so did her hair until it eventually reached all the way down to her knees! But when she makes a new friend a girl who has no hair, Suri wants to find a way to help her feel comfortable and confident.

When Alice wins an enormous basket of lollipops in the raffle, she's happy to share her good fortune with friends and classmates, but everyone seems to have a different opinion about how she should divide the bounty. Suddenly, Alice's big prize becomes a big conundrum. Should she give extras to her friends? Should she withhold lollipops from the kids who always hog the tire swing? As she weighs her options, the panic grows. What if there aren't enough to go around!?

For centuries, blue powders and dyes were some of the most sought-after materials in the world. Ancient Afghan painters ground mass quantities of sapphire rocks to use for their paints, while snails were harvested in Eurasia for the tiny amounts of blue that their bodies would release.

Award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance, and Black life.

Ten bestselling, critically acclaimed authors deliver a fresh novel of interconnected stories that follows a group of young adults over the course of a few wild, transformative hours at an epic house party. House Party offers a delightful snapshot of diverse classmates getting ready to say goodbye to high school and hello to life’s next chapter—but not before they make their final night together one they’ll never forget!

Want to learn more about the bird that chirps outside your window? Ignotofsky crafts a perfect listen with a touch of humor and compassion for our friends with wings in the sky! Find out more from the moment they hatch, to how they create their homes in this perfectly detailed and soon-to-be springtime favorite listen!