(3) K-3 She Persisted series. Illustrated by Gillian Flint. When Joyner faced a (figurative) hurdle in life, she "remembered her mother's words: 'Move on.' And she did." One of eleven siblings, Joyner grew up in LA in a Watts housing project; from the start, the future track star and style iconoclast worked hard and focused on her Olympic dreams. Novelist Williams-Garcia's engaging text covers Joyner's career highlights as well as the obstacles she faced in becoming an Olympic champion. As with previous entries in this chapter-book biography series, short chapters are broken up by friendly black-and-white illustrations. Williams-Garcia concludes her narrative with eight "ideas to encourage your own self-expression and your personal quest to excel." An extensive list of sources is appended.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(1) YA Williams-Garcia, whose YA titles include the 1995 classic Like Sisters on the Homefront and Jumped (rev. 3/09), offers an unusual angle on the subject of slavery with this sobering depiction of life on a nearly bankrupt sugar plantation in Louisiana just prior to the Civil War. Here the lives of the white Guilbert family members and their enslaved "holdings" are intimately interwoven in a series of threads that span generations and reveal the social and political boundaries within which the intriguing cast of characters exist and survive. The eighty-year-old Guilbert matriarch, Madame Sylvie, insists on sitting for a portrait the family can't afford in her efforts to retain a connection to the past. Her son and nemesis Lucien, the manager of the plantation, desperately schemes to avoid foreclosure. His son, essentially engaged to the daughter of a wealthy planter, is in love with a fellow West Point cadet. A family friend spends the summer because her mother hopes the Guilberts will cure her of her unconventional and unladylike ways. Among the enslaved young people on the plantation who are subjected to cruelty as an everyday way of life are Madame Sylvie's personal servant Thisbe and Lucien's "quadroon" daughter Rosalie, who is ostracized by her grandmother but viewed by her father as the family's ticket to solvency. In this sweeping, richly researched, and powerfully delivered tale of privilege and exploitation--often a difficult read--Williams-Garcia's storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic. Appended with an author's note and a bibliography.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Frank Morrison. When his grandfather, Cool Papa, dies suddenly, Clayton Bryd decides to run away and join Cool Papa's band--but he has to take the subway to find the remaining members. He spends a good portion of the book in the underworld of the NYC subway system, meeting interesting characters and performing. An appealing, realistic story with frequent elegant turns of phrase. An author's note outlines the history of the blues.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2017

(2) 4-6 Sisters Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern (One Crazy Summer; P. S. Be Eleven) visit their grandmother and great-grandmother in Alabama. When a tornado strikes, twelve-year-old Delphine sees how her scattered family comes together to hold one another up. This concluding installment has the feeling of a saga, related effectively from Delphine's first-person point of view--and with help from some feisty elders.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015

(1) 4-6 Delphine and her sisters have returned from their mother's (One Crazy Summer), but home in Bedford-Stuyvesant has become tricky. Pa has a new "lady friend"; their uncle returns from Vietnam greatly changed; and Delphine's sisters have learned to stand up for themselves. Williams-Garcia brilliantly gets to the very heart of Delphine and each of her family members, creating complex, engaging, and nuanced characters.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2013

(1) 4-6 Eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters spend the summer of 1968 in Oakland visiting the mother who deserted them and getting an unexpected education in revolution from the Black Panthers. Williams-Garcia writes vividly about that turbulent summer through the intelligent, funny, blunt voice of Delphine, who observes outsiders and her own family with shrewdness and a keen perception.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2010

(2) YA This novel offers piercing snapshots of the struggles of three urban high school girls and the threat of school violence. Trina flits by Dominique; Dominique takes it the wrong way, vowing to fight Trina; Leticia witnesses it all. The fight goes down, and readers are left to wonder what might have been had Leticia intervened. An intriguing setup with a provocative conclusion.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2009

(3) 4-6 Akilah's best friend, Victoria, is spending the summer in Nigeria, where there will be a "special celebration to mark her coming-of-age." When Victoria returns home to Queens, something is wrong, and she finally tells Akilah what happened to her: a ritual clitoridectomy. Though Akilah is an engaging narrator, she sounds older than ten and several story elements strain credibility. But this will be an eye-opening book for most preteens.

Reviewer: Nell Beram | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2004

(1) YA Despite its gritty milieu and violent central motif, this is a love story. Sixteen-year-old Jamaican-born Thulani's only friends are the pigeons on the roof of the Brooklyn brownstone he shares with his brother and sister-in-law. He witnesses a rape from the roof; after he intercedes on the victim's behalf, he becomes obsessed with her. Well-observed and subtle, this novel artfully interplays harsh urban realities with adolescent innocence.

Reviewer: Nell Beram | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2001

(4) PS Illustrated by Mike Reed. In an effort to escape Shemama the Catcher, the Wild Waiyuuzee runs off into the mango grove. As the lively, rhythmic text follows the spirited chase, which involves nut-nut oil, a pig's tail comb, and beads, observant readers will discern the real story: a young African-American girl is trying to avoid her mother's braiding her hair. Reed's vibrant illustrations extend the spirit of the story, even if at times they overwhelm.

Reviewer: Mary R. Holt