In the summer of 1988, twelve-year-old Chuck Bell is sent to stay with his grandparents, where he discovers jazz and basketball and learns more about his family's past.

"A gang leader's son finds his effort to go straight for the sake of his child challenged by a loved one's brutal murder, in a poignant exploration of Black coming-of-age set seventeen years before the events of the award-winning 'The Hate U Give'"--

Picked on at home, criticized for talking trash while beating boys at basketball, and always seen as less than her best friend, a girl struggles to like and accept herself.

From age six through her high school valedictory speech, believing she and her mother are wizards helps young Echo cope with poverty, hunger, her mother's drug abuse, and much more.

In the summer of 1984, twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace of Huntsville, Alabama, visits her father in Harlem, where her fascination with outer space and science fiction interfere with her finding acceptance.

Desmond, Andres, and their ghost-friend Zax take turns trying to tell the scariest story of all while gathered around the campfire on a camping trip.

When Andres discovers that he has had a monster encounter without knowing it as strange things start happening in the school cafeteria, he and Desmond investigate.

As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. With purpose and faith, Isabel and Curzon march on, fiercely determined to find Isabel's little sister Ruth, who is enslaved in a Southern state--

Desmond and Andres go to the museum to see the new mummy exhibit, but when Andres falls into an ancient pot, strange things start happening in the museum.

Although he doesn't feel like talking, a young boy responds to questions by drumming on various objects, including a bucket, hat boxes, and garbage cans, echoing the city sounds around him.