Frank Carlson Library

Thirteen-year-old Jamie is overjoyed when a bequest sends him and his mother to live on an Irish island, where he and his newfound friend Ramsay travel back in time to help a young girl save her people from certain death.

As they look forward to the New York City Marathon in which their friend Mr. B. will run, the Vanderbeeker children learn that one of their good friends is homeless.

"When catastrophe strikes their beloved upstairs neighbors, the Vanderbeeker children set out to build the best, most magical healing garden in Harlem--in spite of a locked fence, thistles and trash, and the conflicting plans of a wealthy real estate developer. While Isa is off at sleepaway orchestra camp, Jessie, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney are stuck at home in the brownstone with nothing to do but get on one another’s nerves. But when catastrophe...

Unable to celebrate the holidays in the wake of his older brother's death in a gang-related shooting, Lolly Rachpaul struggles to avoid being forced into a gang himself while constructing a fantastically creative LEGO city at the Harlem community center. Where I live, it's all about borders. And territories. And crews. When you're a little kid in Harlem, you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything as long as you're careful. But when you start...

The Twelfth Card is a two-day cat-and-mouse chase through the streets of uptown Manhattan as quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs try to outguess Thompson Boyd a man whose past has turned him into a killing machine as unfeeling and cunning as a wolf. Boyd is after Geneva Settle, a high school girl from Harlem, and it's up to Lincoln and Amelia to figure out why.

Based on a true story, American Gangster is the story of two men: Frank Lucas, former driver, bouncer, and collector for Bumpy Johnson, the so-called Robin Hood of Harlem; and Richie Roberts, night-school lawyer, detective, and honest cop. Frank is importing heroin direct from Bangkok--by-passing the Italian and Sicilian mafia--undercutting their prices, delivering superior product, and making a fortune. Richie, loathed by cops on the take for turning...

"Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood - but secretly, she pours her dreams and frustrations onto the pages of her notebook like prayers. When she is invited to join her school's slam poetry club, Xiomara doesn't know how she could ever attend without her religious mami finding out. But even so, in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent."--taken from back cover. Xiomara...

A self-portrait of a black teenage girl, big, fat, unloved, with a father who rapes her and a jealous mother who screams abuse. For Precious, as she is called, hope appears when a courageous teacher, a young black woman, bullies, cajoles and inspires her to learn to read. By the author of American Dreams.

In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe's wife, Violet, attacks the girl's corpse. This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of Black urban life.

Roemello Skuggs (Wesley Snipes) and his older brother Raynathan (Michael Wright) grew up in Harlem with junkies for a mother and father. At an early age, the boys began working for one of the local bosses, Gus (Abe Vigoda). As the years go by, their influence and power expands, until they have become the premier drug dealers in the neighborhood, wielding power to be reckoned with. But Roemello is becoming disillusioned with his life of crime, and...