Raised in South Carolina and New York, Jacqueline Woodson always felt half way home. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s.

A memoir that examines rural poverty and the lingering strains of racism in the South by the author of Salvage the bones.

"Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring...

Born in Missouri in 1928, Maya Angelou had a difficult childhood. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites in the South. Her family life was unstable at times. But much like her poem, "Still I Rise," Angelou was able to lift herself out of her situation and flourish. She moved to California and became the first black and first female streetcar operator before following her interest in dance. She became a professional performer in her twenties and...

A biography of the multi-faceted African-American woman, Maya Angelou, tracing her life from her childhood in the segrated South to her prominence as a well-known writer.

The author of the celebrated autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya was the first Black person and first woman to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration, and her influence echoes through culture and history. She was also the first Black woman to appear on the United States quarter. Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award winner Renée Watson uses Angelou's beloved medium of poetry to lyrically chronicle her rich life in...

A memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a black woman in America--