May is Mental Health Month and, as young adults are one of the groups most widely affected by mental illness, it is imperative to have literature that can help them not only understand others, but feel understood themselves. Here are some of our favorite titles to open up the discussion on difficult subjects and, hopefully,…
Do you relate to any of the characters in the book? Yes, I relate to Shanequa and Miss Precious. Shanequa because I know what it feels like to be the new kid outsider, to feel like you don’t really belong or deserve to be in a particular place. In middle school, I became the only…
If you had told me last year that I would be signing my book for a line of readers, I would have thought you were crazy. But that’s exactly what happened this weekend at ALA’s (American Library Association) conference in New Orleans. It was the wildest, most wonderful experience of my writing career so far,…