Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through...

Ellie Engle doesn't stand out. Not at home, where she's alone with her pet fish since her dad moved away and her mom has to work around the clock . Not at the bakery, where she helps out old Mr. Walker on the weekends. And definitely not at school, where her best friend Abby--the coolest, boldest, most talented girl in the world--drags Ellie along on her never-ending quest to "make her mark." To someone else, a life in the shadows might seem boring,...

Do you struggle with striving to be perfect or obsess about achieving the next big goal? Yet you feel you constantly fall short? If you don't know where these impulses and feelings come from or how to fix them, you are not alone. Author Leah Johnson, a former elected official, trauma warrior, and mom-guilt fighter shares her story of how an all-consuming addiction to achievement can be stopped. Using her experience of over 20 years in campaign politics,...

Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school. After all, her family is black and poor, especially since her mother died. Instead, she has concentrated on her grades and musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced...

From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, ten of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads. Readers will swoon for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.

A collection of seventeen short stories from young adult authors, includes a story in which an alien helps a girl decide if she should tell her best friend how she feels.

Tracie, a devoted wife and mother, lives every day in fear at the hands of her abusive drunk husband gerald. She does everything in her power to make a lifeless marriage work for the sake of her two loving children jordan and brittany. In the process she almost loses everything. Her friends and family serve as the voices of reason, but will the situation ever change? Or will tracie continue to take the abuse and blame.