Karen English Books In Order

Nikki and Deja

Meet Nikki and Deja, who live next door to each other and are best friends. They do everything together watch Saturday morning cartoons, play jacks, jump double Dutch at recess, and help each other with their homework for Mrs. Shelby’s third grade class. But when an arrogant new girl arrives and Nikki and Deja form a club that would exclude her, the results are not what they expect. This warm, easy to read chapter book from an award winning author captures all the joys and complexities of elementary school life particularly friendships and cliques with finesse and humor.

Birthday Blues

The second book about Nikki and Deja, two African American third grade girls who are best friends.

Deja’s birthday is coming up, and she’s been talking about it for weeks. But just before the big day, Auntie Dee gets called away on a business trip and Deja must stay with an elderly neighbor…
who cooks turnips for dinner and doesn’t even have a color TV! Worse, the machinations of spoiled Antonia, Deja’s new nemesis, threaten to ruin Deja’s birthday party plans. Like the first book, this story captures with subtlety and humor all the small betrayals and triumphs of young girls’ relationships. Readers will get a wider view of the girls’ diverse urban neighborhood, and will recognize themselves and their classmates in the colorful, deftly drawn school scenes. A more serious theme is also introduced with a light touch in a subplot concerning Deja’s absent father.

The Newsy News Newsletter

Newsy news is not just regular news. It’s news that’s interesting and exciting. Nikki and Deja know that there’s plenty of newsy news happening on their block and at Carver Elementary, just waiting to be reported. Luckily, Nikki has her special pen and notepad, Deja has the use of Auntie Dee’s computer, and they both have lots of ideas. Before long, the Fulton Street Newsy News Newsletter is born. At first, everyone wants to read what the girls have written. But after just one issue, some unexpected problems arise. Will Nikki and Deja’s plans to become celebrated journalists succeed? Like the first two Nikki and Deja stories, this accessible chapter book shines with emotional depth and humor, perfectly capturing the complexities and joys of elementary school girls’ friendships.

Strawberry Moon

Two new hero*ines from the author of Francie. There’s trouble between Imani’s mom and dad, so her mother is taking her and her brother to stay awhile at Auntie Dot’s house in Los Angeles. Imani is resentful she plans to call her father and ask him to come get her right after they arrive. But as they drive, her mom tells Imani many stories about how she stayed with Auntie Dot in the early sixties while her parents temporarily separated. Imani’s mom Junie had a knack for getting into trouble during her difficult adjustment to life without her mother, but the understanding of Auntie Dot always helped to keep her headed in the right direction. By means of this series of flashbacks, Imani realizes there are larger things at work in her parents’ lives than she is prepared to understand, and for the first time sees her mother as not just a mom but a person as well.

Francie

A distinctive new voice in children’s fictionFrancie lives with her mother and younger brother, Prez, in rural Alabama, where all three work and wait. Francie‘s father is trying to get settled in Chicago so he can move his family up North. Unfortunately, he’s made promises he hasn’t kept, and Francie painfully learns that her dreams of starting junior high school in an integrated urban classroom will go unfulfilled. Amid the day to day grind of working odd jobs for wealthy white folks on the other side of town, Francie becomes involved in helping a framed young black man to escape arrest a brave gesture, but one that puts the entire black community in danger. In this vivid portrait of a girl in the pre Civil Rights era South, first time novelist Karen English completes Francie‘s world using lively vernacular and a wide array of flesh and blood characters. Francie is a 2000 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book.

Just Right Stew

Laughs and love abound in this humorous story revolving around a family gathering. For her birthday, Big Mama’s daughters want to surprise her by making her favorite dish oxtail stew. But try as they might, they just can’t seem to get the stew just right. It takes Big Mama and her granddaughter adding the secret ingredient to make the stew a success. Full color .

Nadia’s Hands

When Nadia is chosen to be a flower girl in Auntie Laila’s traditional Pakistani wedding, her hands are decorated with beautiful designs made with mehndi, and she comes to understand the rich culture she has inherited.

Speak English for Us, Marisol!

After school, Marisol eagerly starts for home to see if her cat, Luisa, has had her kittens. But before she can get there, Uncle Tom’s calls to her. He needs Marisol to tell the poultry man that his chickens cost too much. Uncle Tom s cannot speak English so Marisol must do the talking and she does. Marisol hurries on her way, but soon Auntie Flora stops her for help. Then Mrs. Lopez needs her, too. When Marisol finally gets home, her own mama needs her to hurry to the phone company to straighten out a bill. Luisa will have to wait.

Hot Day on Abbott Avenue

It’s the hottest, stickiest day of the summer. A fat sun in the sky day. An eating ice pops on the porch day. And for Kishi and Ren e, it’s a best friends breakup day. Each girl sits on her own front porch, waiting for the other to apologize, even though they know they’ll never speak to each other again, no matter how bored they get. But then the sounds of feet slapping the pavement and voices chanting double dutch rhymes drift up the avenue, and neither one can resist going out in the street to play. This lyrical friendship story, the first collaboration of two outstanding artists, pairs a rhythmic text with distinctive collage illustrations. Its subtle message about sharing and forgiveness will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced the ups and downs of being, and having, a best friend.

Speak to Me

Six voices from an inner city classroomIn a series of candid free form poems, Karen English presents the thoughts of six third grade children in one day and one classroom at an inner city public school. Malcolm is the central observer, but also a dreamer. Rica has turned eight today, and her real father will be picking her up later. Brianna is upset because Rica has given over ‘best friend’ status to Neecy. There’s Lamont, who aspires to be teacher’s pet, and Tyrell, a kid bound for trouble from the moment he arrives. Inspired by her own experience as an elementary school teacher, Ms. English captures voices that reflect a range of emotion and interest children will easily identify with, and Amy June Bates’s watercolors breathe pictorial life into the characters.

The Baby on the Way

By the Coretta Scott King Honor author
In an urban rooftop garden, a young African American boy named Jamal initiates an intriguing conversation with his grandmother when he asks her if she was ever a baby. Turns out Grandma was even once The Baby on the Way, and she proceeds to tell the story of her birth, the tenth child in a poor farming family. As she discusses the events and traditions that accompanied her welcome to the world, from the fetching of the midwife to a folkways ritual of drinking water from a thimble, vivid, expressionistic paintings from a talented new illustrator evoke the past.

A gentle and satisfying book that will inspire young readers to gather other stories about being The Baby on the Way.