Maizon At Blue Hill

Maizon takes the biggest step in her life when she accepts a scholarship to boarding school and says good-bye to her grandmother and her best friend, Margaret. Blue Hill is beautiful, and challenging-but there are only five black students, and the other four are from wealthy families. Does Maizon belong at Blue Hill after all? * "Simply told and finely crafted." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

After winning a scholarship to an academically challenging boarding school, Maizon finds herself one of only five Blacks there and wonders if she will ever fit in. Sequel to "Last Summer with Maizon".

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Just Us Girls: The Contemporary African American Young Adult Novel is a welcome addition to the literary criticism in a field that deserves more critical study - African American children's and young adult literature. This book is a close-reading textual study of major issues and themes in contemporary (i.e., post-Civil Rights era) young adult novels written by both well-known and lesser-known African American women writers, written primarily from an African American perspective and primarily, but not exclusively, for an African American female audience. Representative works by Candy Dawson Boyd, Rita Williams-Garcia, Deborah Gregory, Rosa Guy, Virginia Hamilton, Mildred Pitts Walter, and Jacqueline Woodson are analyzed. Each chapter investigates cultural, social, and/or psychological issues examined by the writers that are prevalent in the actual lives of African American girls.

Margaret loves her parents and hanging out with her best friend, Maizon. Then it happens, like a one-two punch, during the summer she turns eleven: first, Margaret's father dies of a heart attack, and then Maizon is accepted at an expensive boarding school, far away from the city they call home. For the first time in her life, Margaret has to turn to someone who isn't Maizon, who doesn't know her heart and her dreams. . . . "Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story of nearly adolescent children, but a mature exploration of grown-up issues: death, racism, independence, the nurturing of the gifted black child and, most important, self-discovery."(The New York Times)

A comprehensive guide to multicultural literature for children, this valuable resource features more than 1,600 titles—including fiction, folktales, poetry, and song books—that focus on diverse cultural groups. The selected titles, pubished between the 1970s and 1990s are suitable for use with preschoolers through sixth graders and are likely to be found on the shelves of school and public libraries. Topics are timely, with an emphasis on books that reflect the needs and interests of today's children. Each detailed entry includes bibliographic information. Use level is also included, as are cultural designation, subjects, and a summary. The invaluable Subject Access section incorporates use level culture information.

"A careful selection of children's and young adult books with multicultural themes and topics which were published in the United States and Canada between 1991 and 1996"--Preface, p. vii.

How do you select the best recent works of fiction, oral tradition, and poetry about African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American Indian experiences and traditions from the profusion of titles being published today? This annotated bibliography of titles for children and young adults published from 1985 through the end of 1993--with 60% published since 1990--provides a one-stop selection tool. Appraisals of 559 titles, as well as information about an additional 188 recent books and 90 earlier ones of importance, are provided. Each entry features a plot summary incorporating themes, critical comments with a judgment of the book's value as an example of its genre, suggestions of other books by that writer, and related books of importance. The authors, who are recognized authorities in children's literature, and an advistory board of librarians and teachers, each of whom specializes in the literature of a particular ethnic group, have provided insightful critical appraisals and expertise and guidance in the selection of titles. Helpful subject, grade-level, author, title, and illustrator indexes are organized for ease of use. Titles in the grade-level and subject indexes are also identified by ethnic group.