Secrets are, by nature, phenomenally interesting.  (Also, they’re far better when they belong to someone else and you overhear them.)  It’s why we love James Bond and Alex Rider and Sydney Bristow and Jason Bourne…secrets are their livelihood.  It’s also why we love novels, because the act of reading fiction in itself is a form [...]

Lahni is not only the black adopted daughter of a white couple, but also the only black girl at the exclusive private girls’ school she’s been attending for years. As the students get older, they seem to be more aware of how Lahni is different rather than more accepting of her place among them. Because [...]

Kara Martinez’s Mexican father was killed in an accident when she was eleven, and ever since then her mother has driven every ounce of evidence that he ever existed out of their lives. There are no signs around their house of their Mexican heritage – not even in the food they eat. Ever.  She expects [...]

My dad was in the Navy, so when I was younger we moved a few times. Unfortunately for me, the two moves that took place after I began school both occurred in the middle of the school year. Middle of second grade, middle of fifth grade. This? Sucked. Everyone had chosen their desks, their lunch [...]

It is easy, as a white person, to forget about racism – especially in this Obama-centric time. We elected a black President, didn’t we? Look at how far we’ve come!
It is easy, as a white bookseller in a predominantly white community, to look at the shop shelves and not see much of a problem when [...]