Jerdine Nolen

It's springtime on Bradford Street and twins Jada and Jamal Perkins are helping their parents with yardwork as they look for signs of spring, When their teacher tells them about the town's plans to plant new trees at school in celebration of Earth Day, Jada and Jamal and their best friends, Carlita and Josh, come up with a school beautification project of their own"--

In a series of letters a boy, his science teacher, and his parents discuss the progress of a very unusual, sometimes frightening, plant that becomes more human as the summer progresses.

Mr. Perkins has a big surprise for the annual block party, but when the truck carrying it there breaks down, twins Jada and Jamal and their best friends, Josh and Carlita, propose a different form of transportation.

A farmer's young daughter shares numerous adventures with the dragon that she raises from infancy.

Callie struggles to understand slavery when her stepbrother is sold away at the start of the Civil War, but is determined her whole family will be free one day. Includes historical notes.

"Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, she grew up listening to stories and loved reading. As a teenager she worked at the Lorain town library and later attended Howard University. As an editor at a New York publisher, she found time early in the morning and late at night after her children were asleep to write. When she looked about over her life and all what she had seen and learned, she knew she wanted to write about her people, Black people. Today and always...

Momma Mary tells stories about a special young man who does wondrous things, especially for the slaves on the Plenty Plantation.

When tiny Hewitt is born into a family of giants, everyone learns that sometimes small is best of all.

Through a series of letters a boy, his parents, and others discuss Camp Wannaleavee, the camp bully, and Plantzilla, who has been forbidden to come but misses his caretaker and arrives in time to become the camp hero.

Lily tries to find a way to pitch in and help her family make enough money to send her older sister, Eubie, to college.