Woodson, Jacqueline

A young girl describes her various relatives and the foods they bring to the annual family picnic.

Collects two novels by Jacqueline Woodson, including "If You Come Softly," in which Jeremiah and Ellie fall in love after they meet at their private school in New York, but their different racial backgrounds are a cause for concern among those around them; and "Behind You," in which Jeremiah's loved ones struggle with grief after he is mistakenly shot by police.

Thirteen-year-old Lena and her younger sister Dion mourn the death of their mother as they hitchhike from Ohio to Kentucky while running away from their abusive father.

When a brother and sister are taken to stay with their mother's sister because their mother neglects them, they wonder if they will see their mother again.

After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.

Inspired by his teacher, eleven-year-old Lonnie begins to write about his life in a series of poems in which he discusses his feelings about his friends, his foster mom, his little sister Lili, and the death of his parents.

In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.

When Ms. Albert teaches a lesson on kindness, Chloe realizes that she and her friends have been wrong in making fun of new student Maya's shabby clothes and refusing to play with her.

Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.

Twelve-year-old Toswiah finds her life changed when her family enters the witness protection program.