urban book choices in the library

2. The Skin I’m In
• Thirteen-year-old
Maleeka,
uncomfortable because
her skin is extremely
dark, meets a new
teacher with a
birthmark on her face
and makes some
discoveries about how
to love who she is and
what she looks like.

3. All American Boys
• When sixteen-year-old
Rashad is mistakenly
accused of stealing,
classmate Quinn
witnesses his brutal
beating at the hands of
a police officer who
happens to be the older
brother of his best
friend.

4. Bronx Masquerade
• Wesley writes a poem
for his English class that
gives his teacher the
idea to create Open
Mike Fridays so all
students can share their
poetry.

5. Jumped
• Three girls: the "bully,"
the "victim," and the
bystander. Three lives,
filled with their own
stories, stresses, needs,
and wants, collide one
day in an overcrowded
urban high school with
the kind of result that
makes the news nearly
every day.

6. Playground
• A hard-hitting and
inspirational novel about
the redemption of a bully
from international icon 50
Cent.
Thirteen-year-old
Butterball takes readers
on a journey through
the moments that made
him into the playground
bully he is today.

7. Homeboyz
• Seventeen-year-old
Teddy Anderson, who is
known on the streets as
T-Bear, decides to seek
revenge on the person
responsible for his little
sister's death, which
was caused by a stray
bullet from a
semiautomatic
handgun.

8. If I Grow Up
• In the Frederick
Douglass Project where
DeShawn lives, daily life
is ruled by drugs and
gang violence. Many
teenagers drop out of
school and join gangs,
and every kid knows
someone who died.
Gunshots ring out on a
regular basis.

9. Riker’s High
• Martin Stokes is a 17-
year-old black high
school student.
Arrested on his own
front stoop for
“steering” an
undercover cop to a
drug dealer, he’s spent
five months in jail at
Rikers Island when this
story begins.

10. Boy 21
• Basketball has always
been an escape for Finley.
He lives in gray, broken
Bellmont, a town ruled by
the Irish Mob, drugs,
violence, and racially
charged rivalries. At
home, he takes care of his
disabled grandfather, and
at school he’s called
“White Rabbit”, the only
white kid on the varsity
basketball team.

11. Jason & Kyra
• Jason is a basketball star
and one of the most
popular guys in school.
Brainy Kyra isn't, but she
doesn't much care what
other people think. Under
normal circumstances,
Jason and Kyra would live
in their separate worlds
until graduation. But fate
intervenes…

12. Jumped In
• In the two years since his
mother left him with his
grandparents in Des
Moines, Washington, Sam
has avoided making
friends and perfected the
art of being a slacker, but
being paired with a
frightening new student
for a slam poetry unit
transforms his life.

13. The First Part Last
• Bobby's a classic urban
teenager. He's restless.
He's impulsive. But the
thing that makes him
different is this: He's
going to be a father. His
girlfriend, Nia, is
pregnant, and their lives
are about to change
forever.
• Sequel to
“Heaven”/Bobby’s view

14. Snitch (#2 in series)
• Julia DiVino, a college-
bound student at South
Bay High School, has
vowed never to join a
gang, but she faces
some difficult decisions
when her dream guy,
Eric Valiente, becomes a
gang member.
• Stand-alone storyline

15. Takedown (3rd in series)
• After years in "juvie,"
Darren cooperates with
the police to infiltrate a
drug ring to settle a
vendetta, but sweet,
innocent Jessica is now in
his life so when a deadly
turf war erupts, Darren
must protect not only his
own life, but Jessica's as
well.
• Stand-alone storyline

16. Give a Boy a Gun
• For as long as they can
remember, Brendan and
Gary have been
mercilessly teased and
harassed by the jocks
who rule Middletown
High.
• Events leading up to a
night of terror at a high
school dance are told
from the point of view of
various people involved.

17. Camo Girl
• Ella has always been friends
with a boy known as Z,
despite his reputation as
the weird kid, but when a
new boy, Bailey, moves to
town and befriends Ella
because they are the only
two African American
students in the class, she
must choose between the
popularity Bailey will bring
to her life and her lifelong
friendship with Z.

18. Battle of Jericho Trilogy
• A high school junior and his cousin
suffer the ramifications of joining
what seems to be a "reputable"
school club. (#1)
• After losing her boyfriend, Josh, to a
pledge stunt gone wrong, a pregnant
November Nelson must deal with the
pressures the new baby will bring.
Meanwhile, Jericho, Josh's cousin,
struggles to cope with the loss of his
best friend and turns to a variety of
activities to distract himself from the
pain. (#2)
• As Kofi, Arielle, Dana, November, and
Jericho face personal challenges
during their last year of high school, a
misunderstood student brings a gun
to class and demands to be taken
seriously. (#3)

19. Bang!
• A teenage boy must face
the harsh realities of
inner city life, a
disintegrating family, and
destructive temptations
as he struggles to find his
identity as a young man.
• Little brother was shot
while playing on front
porch

20. When I Was the Greatest
• Ali lives in Bed-Stuy, a
Brooklyn neighborhood
known for guns and
drugs, but he and his
sister, Jazz, and their
neighbors, Needles and
Noodles, stay out of
trouble until they go to
the wrong party, where
one gets badly hurt and
another leaves with a
target on his back.