Lynne Thigpen

Pecola Breedlove, a young eleven-year-old black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dreams grow more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity.--From...

Violet and Joe Trace, a black couple who left Vesper County, VA in 1926 find twenty years later that they are without words or ambition. Their child was loved then murdered by Joe, defamed then maimed by Violet. As Joe and Violet search for the reality of who their daughter was, they arrive at a quiet but powerful redemption.

A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.

Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until the age of ninety-four.

The Warriors, a New York City street gang, are unfairly blamed for the death of a rival gang leader. Now they must fight for their lives against armies of gangs that outnumber the police 5 to 1!

Jamaica doesn't like wearing her brother's old hand-me-down boots to school. She's happy when the tiny hole in the toe gets bigger. Now her mother will have to take her shopping for new boots. She wants to buy some beautiful fuzzy pink ones like her friend Brianna's, but Brianna might think she's copying. So she picks out a pair of fancy cowboy boots. When Brianna tells Jamaica that cowboy boots aren't "in," Jamaica tells Brianna that her boots are...

This summer, young Elizabeth and her little brother are going to their uncle's farm alone. Their parents are staying home in the city. Elizabeth can't wait to run through the fields, sleep outside, and explore her uncle's big farm house. One night at the farm, Elizabeth sees a tall, thin figure floating down the road. Although at first she thinks it's a ghost, she soon finds out that it is Zeely Tayber, going to feed her hogs before dawn. In the following...