"The inspirational story of the most talented high-school basketball team ever and the dedicated coach who gave his players a lifetime opportunity by insisting on success"--
Nothing is as it seems in Tall Oaks, a small California town where everyone knows each other and violent crime is unheard of. The community's idyllic façade is shattered when a kidnapper in a clown costume snatches three-year-old Harry Monroe from his own home. Despite sensational media coverage and dogged police investigations, the abduction remains a mystery. Three months later, Harry is still missing and most people have moved on, except for Jessica, Harry's distraught mother, and Jim, the local sheriff. Anyone in Tall Oaks could be a suspect: Jerry, the loner with a secret that only his mother knows; Jared, the roving lothario; teenage Manny, an aspiring gangster; and even Jessica's Aunt Henrietta and Uncle Roger, who are clearly hiding something. Chris Whitaker’s debut novel, with its striking blend of tragedy and offbeat humor, was awarded the U.K. Crime Writers' Association New Blood Dagger Award. The Guardian praised this beguiling novel as "a pleasingly unusual mixture of a psychological thriller and screwball comedy," noting that "the combination of verve, humor, and pathos make it well worth a read."
Two brothers . . . Two different sides of the law . . . One hustle. Derek Fuller and Scar Johnson were separated as young boys in the Baltimore foster care system. When they finally reunited, it didn't matter to them that they were operating on different sides of the law. Derek was a cop, and Scar a notorious drug dealer, but family came first, and these two formed a partnership that was bound to make both of them very rich men—until Scar realized he couldn't keep his hands off Derek's wife. Tiphani Fuller may have been unsatisfied by her husband, but she never expected to fall for her brother-in-law. Now she's in over her head, doing things that make her no better than the criminals she sees in her courtroom. She's using her new position as a circuit court judge to feed information to Scar and his Dirty Money Crew so they can go on a crime spree with no fear of prosecution. Throw in a cast of characters including an ex-convict who'll do anything for love, a detective who's hell-bent on revenge, and a mayor who breaks more laws than the criminals on the streets, and you have a story that could only come from the mind of Treasure Hernandez. In The Baltimore Chronicles Saga, there is no difference between the bad guys and the good guys. Everyone has an agenda, and every page is full of lust, lies, revenge, and murder.
In the author's "love letter across the generations", essays capture America's melting pot, particularly Baltimore's, in all its rollicking, good-natured, and chaotic essence. 25 halftones.
The Wild Boys is a futuristic tale of global warfare in which a guerrilla gang of boys dedicated to freedom battles the organized armies of repressive police states. Making full use of his inimitable humor, wild imagination, and style, Burroughs creates a world that is as terrifying as it is fascinating.
"Infused with all the joy of the best teen movies, Kings of B'more is sure to be a big hit." —BuzzFeed Two Black queer best friends face their last day together with an epic journey through Baltimore in this magnetic YA debut by bestselling author of Here for It, R. Eric Thomas. A 2023 Stonewall Honor Book for Young Adult Literature With junior year starting in the fall, Harrison feels like he’s on the precipice of, well, everything. Standardized testing, college, and the terrifying unknowns and looming pressures of adulthood after that—it’s like the future wants to eat him alive. Which is why Harrison is grateful that he and his best friend, Linus, will face these things together. But at the end of a shift at their summer job, Linus invites Harrison to their special spot overlooking the city to deliver devastating news: He’s moving out of state at the end of the week. To keep from completely losing it—and partially inspired by a cheesy movie-night pick by his dad—Harrison plans a send-off à la Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that's worthy of his favorite person. If they won’t be having all the life-expanding experiences they thought they would, Harrison will squeeze them all into their last day together. They end up on a mini road trip, their first Pride, and a rooftop dance party, all while keeping their respective parents, who track them on a family location app, off their trail. Harrison and Linus make a pact to do all the things—big and small—they’ve been too scared to do. But nothing feels scarier than saying goodbye to someone you love.
“Thompson captures the ache, fizz, yearning and frustration of being the father of adolescent boys.” —Michael Chabon “What a riveting, touching, and painful read!” —Maria Semple “Fun, moving, raw, and relatable.” —Tony Hawk What makes a good father, and what makes one a failure? Does less-is-more parenting inspire independence and strength, or does it encourage defiance and trouble? Kickflip Boys is the story of a father’s struggle to understand his willful skateboarder sons, challengers of authority and convention, to accept his role as a vulnerable “skate dad,” and to confront his fears that the boys are destined for an unconventional and potentially fraught future. With searing honesty, Neal Thompson traces his sons’ progression through all the stages of skateboarding: splurging on skate shoes and boards, having run-ins with security guards, skipping classes and defying teachers, painting graffiti, drinking and smoking, and more. As the story veers from funny to treacherous and back, from skateparks to the streets, Thompson must confront his complicity and fallibility. He also reflects on his upbringing in rural New Jersey, and his own adventures with skateboards, drugs, danger, and defiance. A story of thrill-seeking teens, of hope and love, freedom and failure, Kickflip Boys reveals a sport and a community that have become a refuge for adolescent boys who don’t fit in. Ultimately, it’s the survival story of a loving modern American family, of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go.
A tribute to the enduring courage and spirit of children of Baltimore from the mid 1800s-early 1900s. In a city that has been, at once, blessed with a rich port and torn apart by war, filled with pristine parks and scarred by the ravages of industrial life, childhood has reflected the ever-changing times and culture in American life. From baseball games and trips to the zoo to schoolyard pals and amusement park rides, children explored the world around them. The nostalgia and innocence of well-born youth, however, mingled with the harsher realities that many boys and girls knew as their daily lives - laboring in the mills and factories, the haphazard destruction of fires and storms, the segregation of public places and the cold and hunger so keenly felt during the Great Depression.