A collection of short stories explore what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.

"Darcy Wills is feeling the pressure: from her parents, with a medical crisis brewing at home; from her close friends, who want her to prioritize their needs; from her romantic interest and the attention their relationship needs; and from the exciting future that beckons to her, in the form of a competitive college prep program. How-and what-will she choose?"

This story continues the tale of the Wills family. Darcy learns that Hakeem, her first boyfriend, is moving out of the state. Then her grandmother's health declines and a mysterious new person comes into her life.

Follows the experiences of two African-American teenagers at an abusive reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr tries to find her voice in order to stand up for what's right.

Darrell Mercer, a 9th grader at Bluford, is at the center of this story. Darrell and his mother move to the Bluford area in the middle of the school year. Physically smaller than his peers, Darrell quickly becomes a target for Tyray Hobbs, the freshman class bully.

"No one likes Tyray Hobbs. Once a feared bully, he's become an outcast. At Bluford High, his peers taunt him for how he treated them. At home, his parents punish him for the trouble he's caused. Unable to escape his reputation or his past, Tyray is desperate. And when an unlikely friendship develops, he clings to it like a lifeline. Now that connection is threatened, and Tyray faces his toughest decision yet. Will his next move lead him to ruin or...

Angel McAllister's best friend has just found out her most intimate secret. Rumors are spreading about Angel liking girls, will she confront the rumors about her or deny them? Whichever decisions she make she will have to face the consequences.

Continues the dark adventures of Alice, whose efforts to save her Wonderland friends are complicated by a Nightmare-summoning poet's schemes to raise the dead.

When her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for Rue and her sister Tasha changes forever. Taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, Rue is forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon-- a hidden island of magic wielders. Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Desperate to see Tasha on the anniversary of their mother's...