Virginia Hamilton

In this retelling of a folktale, a group of slaves, unable to bear their sadness and starvation any longer, calls upon the African magic that allows them to fly away. "The well-known author retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice: animal tales, supernatural tales, fanciful and cautionary tales, and slave tales of freedom. All are beautifully readable. With the added attraction of 40 wonderfully expressive paintings by the Dillons,...

Thomas must keep the treasure of Dies Dear from landing in the wrong hands, but there are many secrets beneath Drear House, and not everyone can be trusted
Thomas Small and his best friend Pesty Darrow have been keeping the secret of the vast treasure that’s hidden in Mr. Pluto’s cave, once a stop on the Underground Railroad. Pesty also has to keep the treasure a secret from her family, who want it for themselves. And there are...

Greeder's summer at her uncle's farm is made special because of her friendship with a very tall, composed woman who raises hogs and who closely resembles the magazine photograph of a Watutsi queen.

Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful of her working mother who leaves her in charge of a retarded brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle and comes to a deeper understanding of her family's problems.

A biography of the slave who escaped to Boston in 1854, was arrested at the instigation of his owner, and whose trial caused a furor between abolitionists and those determined to enforce the Fugitive Slave Acts. The year is 1854. Anthony Burns, a Virginia slave, has escaped to Boston, but his freedom is short-lived. According to the Fugitive Slave Act, a runaway can be captured in any free state, and Burns is soon imprisoned. The antislavery forces...

In this dystopian fantasy series, four children must uncover the secrets of their magical powers   Justice and Her Brothers For Justice and her identical twin brothers Levi and Thomas, the summer begins like any other. But as the slow days pass, Justice begins to notice a strange energy between her brothers, beyond their normal twin connection. Thomas becomes increasingly bossy and irritable, while Levi seems weak and absentminded. And there are...

In this quietly beautiful coming-of-age story, eleven-year-old Valena lives with her family in rural Ohio where she and her cousin share experiences such as surviving a tornado and going to an amazing circus. Yet Valena lives in both the present and the past as she struggles with racism in her daily life and listens to and learns from her mother's tales of her family's proud history. Moving backward and forward in time, these pieces of Valena's life...

A black family of five moves into an enormous house once used as a hiding place for runaway slaves. Mysterious sounds and events as well as the discovery of secret passageways make the family believe they are in grave danger.

Four children, all possessing extraordinary mental powers, are projected far into the future to a bleak region called Dustland.

In this West Indian version of the Rumpelstiltskin story, Lit'mahn spins thread into gold cloth for the king's new bride.