Ziggy, Jerome, Rashawn, and Rico are sure they're going to win the $200 first prize in the upcoming school talent show. With their exuberant singing (especially Ziggy's), energetic dancing, and glittery costumes, how can they lose? And they have big plans for using the prize money to fix up their backyard clubhouse. But then they meet a little girl with a big voice who may have what it takes to beat the Black Dinosaurs - and who needs the money far more than they do. It's hard to know whom to root for - how can everyone emerge a winner?

Sassy and her sparkle sack are back -- this time in a kitchen caper! Sassy wants to cook a fancy meal and it turns out to be a disaster. The recipe goes wrong. The cooking is a mess. And -- the dog eats the cake. Thank goodness for friends and for all of the wonderful items Sassy stashes in her sack. Who knew stuff in a sack could save a dinner party?! Well, when you’re Sassy Simone Sanford, a little ingenuity goes a long way. Backmatter provides simple and safe recipes that kids can do with the help of an adult.

This group of friends has been through so much after a deadly hazing ritual left friendships broken, hearts aching, and November pregnant with Josh's baby. But senior year is going well, and when the fire alarm goes off, everyone assumes that crazy Jack is trying to get out of a quiz or a test. Then he shows up at the science lab wielding an AK-47, sputtering about the need to finally be taken seriously. There's only a matter of seconds to stop a tragedy, and all eyes are searching for someone--anyone--to step up to be the hero.

Sassy and her sparkle sack are back for another adventure with an ecology theme! It's summer vacation, and Sassy and her family are headed to Florida to visit Grammy for her birthday. A huge celebration is planned at Grammy's beach house. Sassy can't wait! But the weather reports say a hurricane is swirling in the Atlantic, and could be coming right toward Grammy's town. So much for family fun-everyone's too busy boarding up their houses and stocking up on food. To make matters worse, the local sea turtles' lives are threatened, there's no electricity, stores are closed, and there's no birthday cake.

In this second novel in Sharon M. Draper’s Jericho Trilogy and Coretta Scott King Honor Book, Jericho and November are locked together in pain from the past and fear for the future, and it feels as though there’s no way to escape either. When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November’s life forever. She’s pregnant and now she’s faced with the biggest decision of her life. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh’s parents take the news? She’s never needed a friend more. Jericho Prescott lost his best friend when he lost his cousin, Josh, and the pain is almost more than he can bear. His world becomes divided into “before” and “after” Josh’s death. He finds the only way he can escape the emptiness he feels is to quit doing the things that made him happy when his cousin was alive, such as playing his beloved trumpet. At the same time, he begins playing football, where he hopes the physical pain will suppress the emotional agony. But will hiding behind shoulder pads really help? And will his gridiron obsession prevent him from being there for his cousin’s girlfriend when she needs him most?

Like Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers, Romiette Cappelle and Julio Montague face strong opposition to their budding romance. In their case, a dangerous gang's disapproval of their interracial relationship puts the two in mortal peril.

WARRIORS ROCK! Sixteen-year-old Jericho is psyched when he and his cousin and best friend, Josh, are invited to pledge for the Warriors of Distinction, the oldest and most exclusive club in school. Just being a pledge wins him the attention of Arielle, one of the hottest girls in his class, whom he's been too shy even to talk to before now. But as the secret initiation rites grow increasingly humiliating and force Jericho to make painful choices, he starts to question whether membership in the Warriors of Distinction is worth it. How far will he have to go to wear the cool black silk Warriors jacket? How high a price will he have to pay to belong? The answers are devastating beyond Jericho's imagination.

After a car accident kills Robert, Andy's best friend and teammate on the Hazelwood High Tigers, Andy doesn't know if he can go on. He's consumed with guilt for driving the night of the accident after a long evening of drinking and partying. With perceptiveness and compassion, Sharon M. Draper portrays an African-American teenager who feels driven to consider suicide in the wake of a devastating tragedy.

THE BLACK DINOSAURS TO THE RESCUE!Ziggy, Rashawn, Jerome, and Rico are excited about watching the heavy machinery at the construction site for a new apartment complex -- until a doe is killed by a dump truck, and the boys rescue her orphaned fawn. Suddenly they realize what the destruction of their habitat means to the animals in the area.So they decide to stage a neighborhood animal show to raise money for the local wildlife rescue center, with the adorable fawn they've named Dino as the star attraction. After all, they've managed round-the-clock feedings and cleaning up after Dino; how much trouble can their friends' cats, dogs, and hamsters be?

Stolen from her village, sold to the highest bidder, fifteen-year-old Amari has only one thing left of her own: hope. Amari's life was once perfect. Engaged to the handsomest man in her tribe, adored by her family, and living in a beautiful village, she could not have imagined everything could be taken away from her in an instant. But when slave traders invade her village and brutally murder her entire family, Amari finds herself dragged away to a slave ship headed to the Carolinas, where she is bought by a plantation owner and given to his son as a birthday present. Survival seems all that Amari can hope for. But then an act of unimaginable cruelty provides her with an opportunity to escape, and with an indentured servant named Polly she flees to Fort Mose, Florida, in search of sanctuary at the Spanish colony. Can the elusive dream of freedom sustain Amari and Polly on their arduous journey, fraught with hardship and danger?

All four Sassy books, now available in an ebook collection!

Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom - the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she's determined to let everyone know it - somehow. In this breakthrough story, reminiscent of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, from multiple Coretta Scott King Award-winner Sharon Draper, readers will come to know a brilliant mind and a brave spirit who will change forever how they look at anyone with a disability.

DEM BONES GONNA RISE AGAIN With their neighborhood basketball court destroyed by vandalism, Ziggy, Rashawn, Jerome, and Rico don't know how they're going to spend summer vacation. Then Ziggy has a brilliant idea (Ziggy is always getting brilliant ideas) they can start a club, with secret meetings and code words and special treasures. And so the four friends become the Black Dinosaurs, with a terrific clubhouse they build in Ziggy's backyard. But when the boys try to hide their treasures, they're swept up in a mystery more intriguing -- and scary -- than anything they could have imagined. Who could have buried a box of bones behind their clubhouse? And why is old Mr. Greene lurking around late at night, singing "Dem bones gonna rise again"? Trust Ziggy to come up with a daring plan to find some answers.... DON'T MISS ANY OF THE EXCITING ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK DINOSAURS

This gripping and chillingly realistic novel from New York Times bestselling author Sharon Draper shows that all it takes is one bad decision for everything to change. Diamond knows not to get into a car with a stranger. But what if the stranger is well-dressed and handsome? On his way to meet his wife and daughter? And casting a movie that very night—a movie in need of a star dancer? What then? Then Diamond might make the wrong decision. It’s a nightmare come true: Diamond Landers has been kidnapped. She was at the mall with a friend, alone for only a few brief minutes—and now she’s being held captive, forced to endure horrors beyond what she ever could have dreamed, while her family and friends experience their own torments and wait desperately for any bit of news. From New York Times bestselling author Sharon Draper, this is a riveting exploration of power: how quickly we can lose it—and how we can take it back.

When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, Jordan Sparks, who abuses her, and from their mother, whose irresponsible behavior forces Gerald to work hard to keep the family together. As a teenager, Gerald finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, while Angel develops her talents as a dancer. Trouble still haunts them, however, and Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation. Sharon M. Draper has interwoven characters and events from her previous novel, Tears of a...