Sharon M Draper

Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.

Piano-prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

Chosen to be a U.S. spokesperson at an international symposium for kids with different abilities, Melody arrives in London where she meets like-minded kids who want to make the world more equal, no matter the unusual challenges they face, and hopes her words can make an impact.

Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

Recovering from the recent suicide of her ex-boyfriend, senior class president Keisha Montgomery finds herself attracted to a dangerous, older man.

Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harrassed by a gang whose members object to their interracial dating.

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.

From a map Ziggy and his friends discover an old tunnel that was once used as a safe haven by escaped slaves. While checking out the tunnel, the trap door gets stuck and the boys are forced to use the old, dark, damp tunnels that just may be haunted.

When Ziggy, Jerome, Rashawn, and Rico enter the school's talent contest, they are sure that they are going to win, until they meet a little girl with a big voice who not only has talent, but who needs the prize money even more than they do.

While in Florida to celebrate her Grammy's birthday, nine-and-a-half-year-old Sassy worries that an approaching hurricane will ruin not only the party, but a nest of sea turtle eggs, as well. Includes facts about hurricanes and sea turtles.