Showing results by narrator "Corey Allen" in All Categories

All the boys in EllRay's third-grade class have something they can brag about. Corey's on the swim team, Kevin is super tall, Jared's dad has an ATV. But EllRay's dad is a geologist - not much to brag about. After all, rocks are boring. Then EllRay sees the crystals in his dad's office, and they are really cool looking. If EllRay just "borrows" them to show his classmates, he knows they'd be impressed. And his dad will never have to know. It's a perfect plan…until things go awry.

With Finding Mrs. Wright, nationally best-selling author Sherri L. Lewis offers a compelling tale of a single father seeking a better future while dealing with his crazy ex. Devon Wright’s young daughter, Brianna, is the most important person in his life. After his last relationship, Devon isn’t looking to get involved with another woman anytime soon. But all that changes when his friend introduces him to Cassandra - and Devon wonders if he might actually have a chance at love.

It all ends here. The characters of the Deadlocked series have been through nearly unbearable challenges, but they're about to face the hardest yet. Kim has been taken by the cruelest, most vile person in the series, and it's up to Billy and Levon to save her. All the while, Laura fights for her life in the grip of the military as they perform tests on her daughter, Annie, that are risking the little girl's life. The conspiracy behind the rise of the zombie plague will be revealed as Reagan uncovers the horrible secret that led to the murder of six and a half billion people.

Life in Harlem isn't easy, but Tippy and his grandmother are doing okay. Then Grandma Carrie gets sick, and Tippy goes to live with Lonnie, his father. Lonnie's got his own thing going on, and he doesn't have much room in his life for a son he barely knows - unless, that is, Tippy is willing to walk the far side of the fine line between right and wrong. Grandma Carrie always said if he had Jesus in his heart there wasn't anything to worry about, but sometimes it's not that simple. When the chips are down, will Tippy be able to call for help - and is there anyone who will listen?

Martha Tom knows better than to cross the Bok Chitto River to pick blackberries. The Bok Chitto is the only border between her town in the Choctaw Nation and the slave-owning plantation in Mississippi territory. The slave owners could catch her, too. But crossing the river brings a surprise friendship with Lil Mo, a boy who is enslaved on the other side. Lil Mo discovers that his mother is about to be sold and the rest of his family left behind. But Martha Tom has the answer: Cross the Bok Chitto and become free.

The small town of Belle Haven, Louisiana, is still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill, and its residents will do whatever it takes to get it back on its feet. So when local English teacher Carissa Melody Wayne is asked to appear on the weight-loss reality show Losing to Win, she agrees. She doesn't realize that others from her past will be joining her, including her high school nemesis, an acquaintance who's been nursing a long-time crush on her - and most shocking of all, Carissa's ex-fiancé...

The only link between a series of grisly murders in New York City is that the victims were all born with 12 fingers and 12 toes. These people are known in occult circles as the Nephilim, a forsaken people, descendants of fallen angels. After a break in the case leads to supposedly killed-in-action Marine sniper Anaba Raines, Michael finds the soldier alive and well, but shockingly no longer human. Michael then discovers that he is also a Nephilim, and next on the killer’s list.

In How to Read the Air, Mengestu crafts a moving tale about one man’s search for identity. After his estranged Ethiopian immigrant father dies, Jonas hopes to answer questions about his heritage and culture. So he leaves his wife and home in New York and sets out across the trail his own parents took when they first arrived in America.

In far northwestern Nigeria, Dantala lives among a gang of street boys who sleep under a kuka tree. During the election the boys are paid by the Small Party to cause trouble. When their attempt to burn down the opposition's local headquarters ends in disaster, Dantala must run for his life, leaving his best friend behind. He makes his way to a mosque that provides him with food, shelter, and guidance.

The finale of the second series of Deadlocked. The High Rollers are ready to take revenge against the forces aligned against them. A hard and long winter has forced them into hiding, but has also given them a respite from something else…something far worse than anything they’ve battled so far. The Noah Initiative has begun, and the land will soon be devastated by a new virus. The people lined up against the High Rollers are fighting among themselves as well, and everyone is at risk. This isn’t just a fight for survival anymore, it’s a fight to save the entire human race.

In nine stories and 13 poems, Sharon G. Flake gives listeners insight into the minds of a diverse group of adolescent African-American males. There’s Tow-Kaye, getting married at age 17 to the love of his life, who’s pregnant. He knows it’s the right thing to do, but he’s scared to death. James writes in his diary about his twin brother’s terrible secret, which threatens to pull James down, too. Tyler explains what it’s like to be a player with the ladies. In a letter to his uncle, La’Ron confesses that he’s infected with HIV. Eric takes us on a tour of North Philly on the Fourth of July.

Junice: What am I doing? He'll take one quick look and wish he was anywhere else but here. I'm already ashamed of what I think he will think of me, of the life I lead...Damien: Yes, she is the fruit that will sustain me and yes, she brings a rain that I know can chill. But it is a rain so sweet and sings a song my soul insists that I follow, if I would exist. As more than I have ever, ever been if my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin.

The Civil Rights Movement was among the most important historical developments of the 20th century and one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. In The Movement, Thomas C. Holt provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-20th-century freedom struggle, privileging the aspirations and initiatives of the ordinary, grassroots people who made it.

Frederick Douglass was a self-educated slave in the South who grew up to become an icon. He was a leader of the abolitionist movement, a celebrated writer, an esteemed speaker, and a social reformer, proving that, as he said, "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

The story of one of America's most revered figures is brought to life by the text of award-winning author Walter Dean Myers.

EllRay Jakes is a small kid with big problems! EllRay Jakes may be the smallest kid in his class at Oak Glen Primary School, but he's also his sister Alfie's big brother. So when it looks like Alfie is being bossed around by a dragon-like girl at her school, EllRay feels responsible. As her older (and wiser!) brother, shouldn't he show her that she should stand up for herself? But little sisters and four-year-old dragons are a bit more complicated than he thought.

When Achilles Conroy and his brother Troy return from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, their white mother presents them with the key to their past: envelopes containing details about their respective birth parents. After Troy disappears, Achilles - always his brother’s keeper - embarks on a harrowing journey in search of Troy, an experience that will change him forever. Heartbreaking, intimate, and at times disturbing, Hold It ’Til It Hurts is a modern-day odyssey through war, adventure, disaster, and love, and explores how people who do not define themselves by race make sense of a world that does.

Peter Ducksworth, a Trinidadian widower of English ancestry, retires to Barbados, believing he will find an earthly paradise there. He decides to divide his land among his three daughters while he is alive, his intention not unlike that of King Lear, who hoped "That future strife/May be prevented now". But Lear made the fatal mistake of confusing flattery with love, and so does Ducksworth. Feeling snubbed by his youngest daughter, Ducksworth decides that only after he dies will she receive her portion of the land.

Friday Black tackles urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest and explores the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In the first unforgettable story of this collection, 'The Finkelstein Five', Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unstinting reckoning of the brutal prejudice of the US justice system. In 'Zimmer Land' we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And 'Friday Black' and 'How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King' show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all.

When EllRay and his friends hear about the school talent show, they're not impressed. They're too old for that stuff. But Mrs. Sanchez, their teacher, isn't so quick to let her students off the hook. Five students MUST try-out, and EllRay somehow ends up being one of them. Now he must figure out something he's talented at....like, maybe magic? With some unexpected help from his dad, a scientist, EllRay begins to realize that he does have talent and brains after all.

In this lucid, illuminating profile, journalist David Handelman presents Sean Combs as he strives to make a positive impact on black lives despite the ever-present shadow of the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud, showing us why, in addition to being a CEO, visionary, father, and role model, Puff Daddy reigns as The Notorious VIP.