Showing results by narrator "James Peter Francis" in All Categories

Kevin Johnson is 13 years old. And heading for juvie. He's a good kid, a great friend, and a star striker for his Highland, New Jersey, soccer team. His team is competing for the State Cup, and he wants to prove he has more than just star-player potential. Kevin's never been in any serious trouble... until the night he ends up in jail. Enter Sergeant Brown, a cop assigned to be Kevin's mentor. If Kevin and Brown can learn to trust each other, they might be able to turn things around before it's too late.

Generations of American history students grew up believing that slave rebellion was relatively rare, that slaves accepted their lot and became attached to their masters, and that they were ultimately liberated with little or no effort of their own. Liberally sprinkled with quotations from Civil War-era blacks, both slave and free, Breaking the Chains gives readers a well-researched look at the lives of real slaves.

An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. Publishers Weekly predicts this "will be the talk of the political in-crowd this summer," and Booklist's starred review calls it "a roman à clef with fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes machinations of racial and power politics." Don't miss this one!

In the dingy Auburn Street project where Junebug lives, ten is the age when young boys start joining gangs and helping drug dealers. Junebug has watched his friend, Darnell, drift away in a sleek, dark-windowed car. He has seen his Aunt Jolita, surrounded by a cloud of jewelry and perfume, strut off with silent gang leaders. Junebug’s mother works hard to keep him and his little sister safe. So do the librarian and the tutor who set up a reading room in the basement of the graffiti-coated apartment building.

When fate brings Jazmine and the X-Man together, the only thing they have in common is a dream to make it big in the music business. Jazmine, a college student, sings in the church choir and yearns for the courage to move away from her overprotective father. The X-Man, who packs a .38 and gets high with his homies, performs his own brand of gangsta rap in the street. Suddenly Black Tie Records discovers them both, and, amazingly enough, they discover each other. These unlikely lovers are a good match, realizing their dreams together....

Junior, a 300 pound musical and artistic prodigy, depends on his imagination for companionship. Buddy is used to depending on no one but himself. Homeless, he uses his wits to survive the streets. With the help of Mr. Poole, the school custodian, the two boys discover a sheltered universe of their own in the basement room. When their hiding place is discovered, and Junior loses the only place he feels safe, his imagination takes over. It will take all of Buddy’s resource to protect his friend as the realities of Junior’s world come crashing in around them both.

Reckless, angry and adrift, Bigger Thomas has grown up trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. But a job with the affluent Dalton family provides the setting for a catastrophic collision between his world and theirs. Hunted by citizen and police alike, and baited by prejudiced officials, Bigger finds himself the cause célèbre in an ever-narrowing endgame.

Every prison inmate needs a Road Dog - someone to watch their back, someone they can trust on the inside and out. For wealthy Cuban criminal Cundo Rey, that person is Jack Foley: charmer, ladies' man, and infamous bank robber. With the services of a shark attorney and a whole heap of cash, Cundo engineers his buddy's early release, and Jack is soon living large in Cundo's house in Venice Beach, enjoying the attentions of his sexy wife, Dawn. But Dawn has ulterior motives and a plan: to relieve her husband of his considerable fortune...and she needs Jack's help.

When Filthy White Guy buys about a hundred burritos and blows up the microwave of the convenience store where Paris Scott has been working for 30 long nights, Paris decides his life couldn't be more of a mess. But when he gives Filthy White Guy a ride home to a Bel Air mansion, things really start to explode.

In the groundbreaking tradition of his award-winning Monster and Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers fashions a highly listenable, powerful novel about the rules for success for young men, especially those navigating coming of age while Black. Share this book in the classroom, in a father-son group, or as a summer listening (or anytime) choice that's likely to spark conversation and be a favorite.

Tired of the dating scene in suburban Philadelphia, 29-year-old Myles Moore is waiting for the right woman. He fills his days with basketball, teaching grade school, and “good peoples,” but his buddies always get on his case about his lofty standards in females. When he meets beautiful Marisa Marrero, a black Latina lawyer, he knows she is the woman of his dreams. But Marisa is all too human—ambitious, self-sufficient, and with her own views of romance.

A defense attorney who lives his life in shades of gray, Victor Carl fights all the right fights for all the wrong reasons. With a failing legal practice, a dead-end love life, and a pile of unpaid traffic tickets, Victor skates on the razor's edge of legal ethics in search of the easy buck. But the one absolute in Victor's life is loyalty, especially to a client, even if he happens to be dead.

It is the evening of 16-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress - the very same dress that was sewn for a different wearer, Melody's mother, for a celebration that ultimately never took place. Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents - from the 1921 Tulsa massacre to post-9/11 New York....

For a young adolescent, David Curry has a lot to contend with. He loves and fears Reuben, his troubled father. His older brother, Ty, is turning into someone David doesn't know anymore, or trust. And his mom is struggling to hold everything together.

After three years of struggling to restore his father's vineyard, lawyer Jason Dark has managed to get his life on track and to win back his estranged wife and son. Then, in one irrevocable moment on a dark, storm-swept mountain road, he must make a terrible choice - a choice that forces him into a succession of lies that he hopes will protect his family. Will he survive the consequences of his momentous decision?

The Gospel According to Matthew is Volume 22 from Gospel and Acts, the New Testament, from the unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

Tip and Teddy are becoming men under the very eyes of their adoptive father, Bernard Doyle. A student at Harvard, Tip is happiest in a lab, whilst Teddy thinks he has found his calling in the Church, and both are increasingly strained by their father's protective plans for them. But when they are involved in an accident on an icy road, the Doyles are forced to confront certain truths about their lives, how the death of Doyle's wife Bernadette has affected the family, and an anonymous figure who is always watching.

At four years old, Richard Wright set fire to his home in a moment of boredom; at five his father deserted the family; by six Richard was - temporarily - an alcoholic. It was in saloons, railroad yards and streets that he learned the facts about life, about fear, hunger and hatred, while his mother's long illness taught him about suffering. In a world of White hostility and subjugation it would be his love of books and pursuit of knowledge that would propel him to follow his dream of justice and opportunity in the north.

Two friends, the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, share this uplifting story about their childhoods, showing young listeners how to find joy even in uncertain times. This is a charming story of how every child has joy inside them, even when it sometimes hides, and how we can find it, keep it close, and grow it by sharing it with the world.