SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS by Anne E. Schraff

Roylin is living a nightmare – and it’s all his fault. It started when the new student, Korie Archer, arrived in his history class. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and unlike most people at Bluford High, she seemed to like him. But when Roylin tried to impress her, he made [...]

Q&A: Paul Volponi

Mr. Volponi is a writer, journalist and teacher living in New York City. For six years he taught incarcerated teens on Rikers Island to read and write, and for six years taught teens in drug day-treatment centers, influencing many of his novels. To learn more about him and his books, visit www.paulvolponibooks.com
Tell us a little [...]

Urban Fiction by K.C. Taylor – Miranda Doyle

The following article was originally posted on StreetFiction.org
I’m so glad that authors are starting to write urban fiction especially for teens. The urban fiction, or “street lit”, genre is a relatively new one, and one that interests me because so many of my students ask for it. Many of the gritty adult titles, though, have [...]

SPIN IT LIKE THAT by Chandra Sparks Taylor

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Richardson has a love for music. When She gets on the turntables, her gift for spinning and rhyming earn her admiration and respect. She’s also talented academically, but her parents disapprove of their daughter’s hobby, hoping that it’s a phase she’s going through. Still, Jasmine finds it hard to deny the joy and [...]

Response by Paul Volponi

Noah and his friends go to a nearly all-white neighborhood with a plan: steal a car, sell it to a chop shop, and make some fast cash. But that never happens. Instead, Noah, a teen father, is the victim of a vicious beating that leaves him with a fractured skull. Was the attacker protecting his [...]

THE PLEDGE by Chandra Sparks Taylor

If you really loved me, you’d…
Raised in a strict household, sixteen-year-old Courtland Murphy never had a date. But that was before the guy of her every dream – basketball star Allen Benson – asked her. She’s gone from never-been-kissed to dating the hottest guy in school. And now her new boyfriend is pressuring her to [...]

HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI by Dona Sarkar

First, Issa Mazumder’s nerdy boyfriend dumps her for popular Latina princess Cat Morena – as if Cat even likes him. She just hates Issa. And for good reason: Issa finds out that her mother not only has been dating Cat’s dad, but is going to marry him. That means they’re moving to Cat’s huge house. [...]

RIKERS HIGH by Paul Volponi

Martin Stokes could hold his own in the tough New York City neighborhood where he grew up, but that’s nothing – nothing – compared to Riker’s Island. Martin’s been in the Riker’s Island jail for five months and counting, locked up for a crime he didn’t even mean to commit.
After his court date is delayed [...]