Her family has hit a rough patch and fifteen year old Jada needs an escape. Since nothing else in her life is stable, Jada finds herself wrapped up in a world where only she and her boyfriend Marcus Jones exist. Despite warnings from her family, Jada is convinced that love is the key to her happiness. That is until her relationship begins to unravel. When things go awry and she finds herself in a life changing situation, Jada discovers the importance of family and she realizes that maybe parents do understand after all. This tale of love, family, and growing up is sure to be one that people of all ages can relate to. After all, love never changes; its just remixed.

This perfectly imperfect guide features 10 chapters of advice that's short, sweet, and straight to the point. Filled with humor, personal anecdotes, and an unnecessary amount of meme references, each chapter is focused on a specific mistake women make when it comes to dating and how we can navigate the dating world better in order to preserve and protect ourselves. What We Not Finna Do empowers women to choose themselves over love and men, crushing and redefining everything women were taught to believe about love and relationships. Self-love is the name of the game and this is your playbook.

COMMON SENSE MEDIA SELECTION FOR TEENS BOOKLIST BEST OF THE YEAR NYPL TOP 10 OF THE YEAR HIPLATINA BEST OF THE YEAR Elizabeth Acevedo has said that reading Lorraine Avila feels like an “UPPERCUT to the senses.” You've never encountered an author with prose of this sensitivity and fire. Yolanda Alvarez is having a good year. She’s starting to feel at home at Julia De Burgos High, her school in the Bronx. She has her best friend Victory, and maybe something with José, a senior boy she’s getting to know. She’s confident her initiation into her family’s bruja tradition will happen soon. But then a white boy, the son of a politician, appears at Julia De Burgos High, and his vibes are off. And Yolanda’s initiation begins with a series of troubling visions of the violence this boy threatens. How can Yolanda protect her community, in a world that doesn’t listen? Only with the wisdom and love of her family, friends, and community – and the Bruja Diosas, her ancestors and guides. The Making of Yolanda la Bruja is the book this country, struggling with the plague of gun violence, so desperately needs, but which few could write. Here Lorraine Avila brings a story born from the intersection of race, justice, education, and spirituality that will capture readers everywhere. P R A I S E ★ “Inspiring… full of heart and spirituality.” —Shelf-Awareness (starred) ★ "A sharply rendered portrait...Avila's striking debut is not to be missed." —Booklist (starred) ★ “Unabashedly political…A remarkable, beautifully rendered debut.” —Kirkus (starred) ★ “Suspenseful…A boldly characterized protagonist whose intersectional identities as a queer and Deaf person of color informs her sharp-witted narrative voice and conviction around combatting racism within her community.” —Publishers Weekly (starred) ★ Heartbreaking… thoughtful and gripping… Avila has created a complex heroine whose identities as a Deaf and queer person of color give a layer of authenticity and intersectionality that will resonate with readers.” —School Library Journal (starred) “Impressive and urgent. [Avila] takes on racism, violence and injustice with a mix of magic, spirituality and care that few have attempted—and she’s captivatingly successful.” —Ms. Magazine “Explores gun violence, race, justice, education, and spirituality, which holds this book like a canopy, enclosing and exposing layers of Blackness and the growth and sense of belonging community can provide.” —Al Dia “A necessary story about gun violence, race, and education.” —Refinery29 “Gripping…skillfully depicts the reality of growing up as a Black Latinx teen in the midst of racial violence and social upheaval… Avila carefully demonstrates the tremendous strength in Yolanda’s community and the deep roots of her spiritual life, which keep her grounded as she steps into her full power.” —Horn Book "Written in stunning prose, this sharp examination of education, race, violence, and spirituality is a must-read." —The Mary Sue

Valeer Sanders aka CJ, an educated ex-con / businessman, along with Brothaz 4 Life, takes on the pandemic of STIs by taking matters into his own hands. Will he get justice for the many souls who'd been afflicted? Will Candy receive her retribution? Will the Brothaz 4 Life drug-funded organization meet their mark? Join them as they take you on a suspense-filled, action-packed story of betrayal, drama, and chaos at its best.

The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Participatory Inquiry in Transnational Research Contexts illustrates how research guided by the emancipatory epistemology of critical participatory inquiry (CPI) can support social change in transnational contexts, which are inherently laden with unequal power dynamics and colonial structures. It builds on prior volumes in participatory action research, community-based participatory research, and decolonizing methodologies. This edited volume offers cases from across the Global South and Global North and from diverse disciplines including human rights, migration, education, health, youth studies, and development to demonstrate how CPI can fulfill its democratizing and decolonizing potential. Written primarily by new and emerging scholars, practitioners, and community leaders, these cases go on to illustrate how a critical participatory approach to transnational research can enhance the strength of research processes and findings, create more equitable and just experiences for those who participate as co-researchers, and facilitate social change. Providing a valuable framework for transnational CPI and a wealth of examples, it will be an invaluable read for undergraduate and graduate students of Development Studies, Healthcare disciplines, Education, and qualitative research. It will also be of interest to researchers, professionals, community leaders, and even funders and policymakers who want to work toward greater equity and social justice in transnational research contexts.

TRUST NO MAN is an urban street tale told in such vivid detail and with such gritty and compelling style it's like watching a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Terrence aka Youngblood is a young and jiggy stick-up kid in ATL with strict street principles respect for the code of his game, loyalty to those who are loyal to him, and much baby mama drama. Shan, Youngblood s cocaine sniffin baby mama, violates him when she hooks up with one of his partnaz while Youngblood is serving a bid. When Youngblood touches down, it s on and poppin . Rich kid, a flamboyant drug kingpin wants to put Youngblood on his team, but Youngblood prefers to get his the fast way the ski mask way. When Youngblood hits a big lick, he finds out that more money means more problems. Who can he trust? The answer will leave you speechless. TRUST NO MAN is a story of murder, sex, money, bling, love, and betrayal. Get ready to have your every emotion touched. TRUST NO MAN will do that!

Best Book of the Year NPR • The Washington Post • Boston Globe • TIME • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Parade • Buzzfeed • Electric Literature • LitHub • BookRiot • PopSugar • Goop • Library Journal • BookBub • KCRW • Finalist for the National Book Award • One of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year • One of the New York Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year • Instant New York Times Bestseller A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

Londyn A’mir Woods is a twenty-five-year-old single woman who’s trying to find love in a man, Eli, who can’t give it to her for all kinds of reasons. She holds on to him and takes everything he does in—at least until she ends up raising her three out-of-control nieces. She sees so much of her in them, and now she’s got a decision to make. Will she be a role model and leave Eli in her past, or is she going to shut her nieces out and continue to try to make Eli hers?

Chicago has long served as a symbol of urban pathology in the public imagination. The city’s staggering levels of violence and entrenched gang culture occupy a central place in the national discourse, yet remain poorly understood and are often stereotyped. Views from the Streets explains the dramatic transformation of black street gangs on Chicago’s South Side during the early twenty-first century, shedding new light on why gang violence persists and what might be done to address it. Drawing on years of community work and in-depth interviews with gang members, Roberto R. Aspholm describes in vivid detail the internal rebellions that shattered the city’s infamous corporate-style African American street gangs. He explores how, in the wake of these uprisings, young gang members have radically refashioned gang culture and organization on Chicago’s South Side, rejecting traditional hierarchies and ideologies and instead embracing a fierce ethos of personal autonomy that has made contemporary gang violence increasingly spontaneous and unregulated. In calling attention to the historical context of these issues and to the elements of resistance embedded in Chicago’s contemporary gang culture, Aspholm challenges conventional views of gang members as inherently pathological. He critically analyzes highly touted “universal” violence prevention strategies, depicting street-level realities to illuminate why they have ultimately failed to reduce levels of bloodshed. An unprecedented analysis of the nature and meaning of gang violence, Views from the Streets proposes an alternative framework for addressing the seemingly intractable issues of inequality, despair, and violence in Chicago.