oakland (calif.)

In the aftermath of the 1991 firestorm in Oakland, California, sixth-grader Jessie enters a performing arts middle school where she pursues her dream of becoming an actress and struggles with feelings of low self-esteem.

In 1980s Oakland, two teenage African-American sisters named Pinch and Paige escape a violent home, move into an abandoned Victorian mansion, and fall into friendship with a group of misfits and drug dealers, leading to a difficult look at their past choices and the paths their futures could take.

Tilo, a young woman born in a faraway place and time, must choose between the supernatural life of an immortal and the hardships of life on Earth when she travels through time to modern-day California and falls in love with a mortal man.

Longtime band mates Archy and Nat preside over Brokeland Records, a used-record emporium, but trouble arises when a former NFL quarterback, one of the country's richest African Americans, decides to build his latest Dogpile megastore on nearby Telegraph Avenue which could spell doom for the little shop.

Describes the devastating fire that swept through Oakland, California, in 1991 and the experiences of fire fighters, police officers, and ordinary citizens during this disaster.

Li Keng Wong shares the story of her experiences, along with her family, moving from China to California in the 1930s.

The author describes her journey in 1933, at the age of seven, with her mother and two sisters from their village in southern China to the U.S. and recalls important moments from their first eight years in America.

In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.

After a devastating fire in the hills of Oakland, California, during Sukkot, a Jewish family and their neighbors find symbols of hope amidst the ashes.