"Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader's guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long...

It's summer on 141st Street, and the Vanderbeekers are looking forward to Papa's surprise fortieth birthday party. But then Papa must leave town to help his best friend and the Vanderbeeker children are surprised to find their maternal grandparents on their doorstep. Grandma is very critical of everything they do. Meanwhile, they find themselves learning more about their papa's father than ever before, and wishing they could have known him a bit better....

When a white couple gives birth to a baby with distinctly black features, a family is thrown into turmoil.

"You're so exotic!!" "You look so unusual." "But what are you really?" Eleven-year-old Isabella - whose father is black and mother is white - is used to these kinds of comments, but it doesn't mean she likes them. And now that her parents are divorced (and getting along WORSE than ever), Isabella feels like a push-me-pull-me toy. Being split between Mom and Dad is more than swtiching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: It's switching...

"Albie has always been an almost. He's almost good at tetherball. He's almost smart enough to pass his spelling test. He almost makes his parents proud. And now that Albie is starting a brand-new school for fifth grade, he's never felt more certain that almost simply isn't good enough. With everyone around him expecting him to be one thing or another, how is an almost like Albie ever supposed to figure out who he really wants to be?" -- Page [4] cover....

"At first June can't believe it: their new home is a homeless shelter? When she's told she can't bring her cherished viola inside, she's convinced the worst luck in the world landed her at Huey House. But Tyrell has lived at Huey House for three years, and he knows all the good things about it: friendship, hot meals, and the music from next door drifting through the windows. With his help, June begins to see things differently. just as she's starting...

"In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When Mindy, one of those children, announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adopted family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival in their lives. Though her father supports Mindy's desire to meet her family of origin, he struggles privately with an unsettling fear that he'll lose...

Amidst the anticipation of Mr. B and Aunt Penny's wedding, the Vanderbeekers' lives take an unexpected turn as Laney receives a dire diagnosis, leading them to the hospital where, despite their own challenges, they form a bond with a critically ill new friend in need of their support.

"Santa has a problem. This kid? Harold? Santa doesn't think he's real. He WANTS to believe in Harold--after all, Harold is one of the most magical parts of Christmas. Getting Harold's letters, eating the cookies he leaves out, feeding his carrots to the reindeer... what would Christmas be without that? But Santa's just not sure. Some of his friends are telling him they think Harold's not real. And the Harold that sat on his knee last Christmas looked...

Erin Powers navigates growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee being raised by a white, closeted lesbian mother. Based on the author's experience. Two girls on different timelines-- each growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee-- find their lives bridged by a mysterious portal. Part memoir, part speculative fiction, Gibney examines the absurdities of the adoptee experience through her own adoption experiences. -- adapted from jacket...