Angela Johnson, Author . S&S $15.95 (128p) ISBN 978-0-689-83253-6
"I think it's like walking barefoot in a room full of broken glass, when someone you love goes away," notes the bereaved young narrator of Johnson's (Heaven) penetrating novel set in a seaside town on Cape Cod. Mike (short for...
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Angela Johnson, Author Orchard Books (NY) $15.95 (60p) ISBN 978-0-531-30114-2
Decorated with blurred photographs from a family album, this touching collection focuses on the denizens of Shorter, Ala., a town that is due to be leveled because of ""some big company wanting to make a dog track."" The 14-year-old narrator returns
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Angela Johnson, Author Scholastic $4.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-590-67452-2
This ""luminous"" novel, said PW in a starred review, ""offers a delicate yet unflinching look at the shadows that spread over families of schizophrenics.... a story of subtle but real hope."" Ages 12-up. (Oct.) ...
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Angela Johnson, Author Alfred A. Knopf $4.99 (108p) ISBN 978-0-679-89488-9
After her parents divorce and her best friend moves away, a teen must adjust to her altered life in a small Ohio town. ""A quiet, heart-wrenching read,"" said PW. Ages 10-13. (Dec.)
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Angela Johnson, Author Orchard Books (NY) $15.95 (121p) ISBN 978-0-531-06898-4
No one knows when the whispers will start--not Nicole, who is 25, beautiful and schizophrenic; not Aunt Shirley, whose calm patience is a way of saying ``Live with it''; and especially not Sophy, who is unable to prevent her sister's sudden descents
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Angela Johnson, Author Orchard Books (NY) $15.95 (103p) ISBN 978-0-531-05476-5
With several picture books already to her credit, Johnson ( When I Am Old with You ) makes an especially promising foray into YA fiction with this thoughtfully nuanced and penetrating novel. Emily, the 14-year-old who serves as the principal...
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Angela Johnson, Author Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $16.95 (144p) ISBN 978-0-689-82229-2
As in her Gone from Home (reviewed above), Johnson here explores the themes of what makes a place home and which people family. Fourteen-year-old Marley's tranquil life in Heaven, Ohio, turns hellish the day her family receives a letter from Alabama.
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Angela Johnson, Author Scholastic Paperbacks $6.99 (112p) ISBN 978-0-590-48142-7
PW , in a starred review, praised this ``thoughtfully nuanced and penetrating'' novel about three generations of women from an African American family who must cope with a beloved grandmother's illness. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)
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Angela Johnson, Author Scholastic $15.95 (128p) ISBN 978-0-531-30023-7
In Johnson's (Humming Whispers) absorbing character study, the country prepares the bicentennial celebration of Independence Day while 13-year-old Doreen and her younger brother Robert start a new chapter in their lives without their father. The...
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Angela Johnson, Author . Puffin $5.99 (133p) ISBN 978-0-14-240544-4
PW
called this tale of 13-year-old Bird and two boys connected by a single heart (her stepfather's nephew, recipient of a heart transplant, and the boy whose brother was the donor) "a quiet, affecting story." Ages 10-up. (Jan.)
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Angela Johnson, Author . Puffin $5.99 (133p) ISBN 978-0-14-240284-9
According to PW
, "In lyrical language, the author raises intriguing themes of the supernatural, the lure of nighttime and the heroine's yearning for the sun." Ages 8-up. (Apr.)
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Angela Johnson, Author . Dial $15.99 (144p) ISBN 978-0-8037-2847-9
Johnson's (The First Part Last
) quiet, affecting story told in three voices follows Bird, 13, as she runs away in pursuit of her stepfather. In rural Alabama, Bird is befriended by two boys connected by a single heart: Ethan, her stepfather'
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Angela Johnson, Author . Dell/Laurel-Leaf $4.99 (112p) ISBN 978-0-440-22942-1
"In these 12 well-honed stories, Johnson zeroes in on the idealism and resiliency that make young people a powerful force in the world," wrote PW. "Her flavorful language will draw readers immediately into these brief, emotion-packed...
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Angela Johnson, Author Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers $14.95 (112p) ISBN 978-0-679-89077-5
Angela Johnson returns to the characters and setting of Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street with When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street. Now that Charlie has settled into her new neighborhood, she is only too delighted to observe all the goings-on,...
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Angela Johnson, Author . S&S $15.95 (144p) ISBN 978-0-689-84922-0
In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells...
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Angela Johnson. Simon & Schuster, $15.99 (176p) ISBN 978-0-689-86505-3
Three-time Coretta Scott King Award–winner Johnson (Heaven) pens a story of dazzling immediacy set in Cleveland. Her keenly observant narrator, Scotty, 16, divides her days between attending school, dealing with her autistic younger brother, Keone;...
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Angela Johnson, Author . Dial $14.99 (133p) ISBN 978-0-8037-2846-2
Johnson (I Dream of Trains
, reviewed above) raises intriguing themes of the supernatural, the lure of nighttime and the heroine's yearning for the sun, but despite her lyrical language, fantasy and reality elements sit uneasily together in her...
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Angela Johnson, Author . Simon Pulse $4.99 (116p) ISBN 978-0-689-86388-2
A middle-schooler's brother disappears one day. As she weaves scattered recollections of her brother into what PW
called "an affecting account" of how she deals with the pain of his death, she slowly brings the particulars of the...
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Angela Johnson, Author, John Ward, Illustrator Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers $16 (112p) ISBN 978-0-679-89053-9
Johnson (Toning the Sweep) once again evokes a strong sense of place with this breezy, slice-of-life chapter book. Loosely structuring the volume as a series of vignettes, the author recounts a child's exploration of her new neighborhood. Any...
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Scholastic $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-30139-5
Here comes the bride--and her younger sister, the flower girl, who offers a glimpse of what it's like to prepare for and participate in a family wedding. From trying on wedding gowns, to tasting the food that will be served at the reception and...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Eric Velasquez, Illustrator , illus. by Eric Velasquez. S&S $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-83252-9
According to an author's note, Johnson's (When I Am Old with You
) story pays tribute to the children who played a role in the civil rights movement, the "brave boys and girls who—like their adult counterparts—could not...
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Angela Johnson, illus. by Scott M. Fischer. Simon & Schuster, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-87377-5
These in-sync collaborators offer a lighthearted glimpse into a day in the life of a bubbly African-American girl who lives with her Papa Pete in a house across from a park. Johnson's (The Day Ray Got Away) free-association narrative has a chatty...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Rhonda Mitchell, Illustrator, Rhonda Mitchell, With Scholastic $5.99 (12p) ISBN 978-0-531-06849-6
More evocative in their use of language than many other board books, this quartet traces small moments in the life of Joshua, an African American boy. He dons slicker and galoshes in the first book to parade joyfully ``jumping, hopping,/ all in...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Loren Long, Illustrator , illus. by Loren Long. S&S $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-84879-7
The team behind I Dream of Trains
masterfully presents a story of the Tuskegee Airmen, as light and graceful as the air in which they navigated their planes. A boy recounts his great-great-uncle's experience as one of these unsung heroes. Long&#
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Scholastic $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-05794-0
Mama's memories of her own childhood have been told to her daughter so many times that the girl has made them her own bedtime litany; she tells her mother the stories and her mother reassures her that she has the story right. About the story of a...
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Orchard Books (NY) $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-05884-8
``When I am old with you, Grandaddy,'' says a small black child, ``I will sit in a big rocking chair beside you and talk about everything.'' And he does, rushing and tripping through all the activities they share--walking on the beach, riding the...
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Scholastic $6.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-07035-2
An African American girl and her Grandaddy imagine many shared activities yet to come; PW noted, ``The joy the two characters have in each other's company is richly evoked by Soman's vivid, burnished watercolors.'' Ages 4-7. (Mar.)
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator, David Samon, Illustrator Orchard Books (NY) $15.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-531-09502-7
Johnson's (Julius; Toning the Sweep) cryptic tale suggests questions, then leaves it wholly to the reader to answer them. Told by the older of two siblings who live with their white father and African American mother, the story opens on an...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Shane W. Evans, Illustrator DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7894-2596-6
In this tender picture book, Johnson (Gone from Home; When I Am Old with You) and Evans (Osceola; Shaq and the Beanstalk) pay tribute to an enviable treasure: wise and loving family elders. Every summer a girl and her brother and father drive ""down
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Angela Johnson, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-689-87376-8
This elegant collaboration by the creators of Lily Brown’s Paintings tells of the day that slaves on a Texas plantation learn they are free, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Johnson’s graceful poem is
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Angela Johnson, Author, Beth Peck, Illustrator , illus. by Beth Peck. S&S $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-82628-3
Identified in an endnote as the "Babe Ruth of the Negro Leagues," Josh Gibson serves as the catalyst to Johnson's (Violet's Music
, reviewed above) mildly girl-empowering baseball story. Sitting with her grandmother at the kitchen...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Peter Catalanotto, Illustrator, Peter Catalanotto, Photographer Scholastic $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-30015-2
A nostalgic look at old-time peddlers inspires two enterprising youngsters in Johnson's (When I Am Old with You) tender story. An African American girl tells her friend about her grandfather's fond memory of the Rolling Store that came, ""with all...
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Angela Johnson, Author, James Ransome, Illustrator, James Ransome, Photographer Orchard Books (NY) $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-531-05491-8
A classroom visit from a local zookeeper and a collection of animals awakens a girl's interest in snakes in this picture book by Do Like Kyla 's collaborators. Ali is so taken with Silvia, the snake that makes her think of ``the sun and the earth...
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Angela Johnson, Author, E. B. Lewis, Illustrator , illus. by E. B. Lewis. Scholastic/Orchard $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-439-78225-8
Not all artists lead tortured lives. At least, not this heroine, an African-American girl who "loves her mamma, daddy and baby brother and the world they live in." Johnson (Toning the Sweep
) portrays a painter filled with a joie de vivre (&#
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Angela Johnson, Author, DK Publishing, Author DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) $15.95 (112p) ISBN 978-0-7894-2499-0
In these 12 well-honed stories told in first-person narrative, Johnson (Toning the Sweep) zeroes in on the idealism and resiliency that make young people a powerful force in the world. Despite their rough circumstances, these characters have a keen...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Laura Huliska-Beith, Illustrator , illus. by Laura Huliska-Beith. Dial $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-2740-3
Although Violet's love of music ostensibly forms the heart of Johnson's (When I Am Old with You
) story, the rhythm and joy of a child's delight in music comes through in neither text nor art. Starting in the nursery at the hospital,...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Mike Benny, Illustrator, Loren Long, Illustrator , illus. by Loren Long. S&S $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-82609-2
MacArthur Award winner Johnson (Heaven
; Toning the Sweep
) pens a reverie as piercing and poignant as the long cry of a train whistle against debut artist Long's breathtaking backdrops. As the African-American boy narrator toils in the cotton...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Angela Johnon, Author . S&S/Simon Pulse $5.99 (144p) ISBN 978-0-689-84923-7
A 16-year-old tells the story of how he became a single dad.In a starred review of this companion to Heaven
, PW
said, "The author skillfully relates the hope in the midst of pain." Ages 12-up. (Dec.)
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Angela Johnson, illus. by Luke LaMarca, Simon & Schuster, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-689-87375-1
When a yellow parade balloon announces, "This is the day," the other balloons call him a dreamer. A pointy sun balloon with a wide, toothy smile, Ray breaks free of his ropes during a parade, floating up to the moon and leaving chaos in his wake....
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Angela Johnson, Author, A. Johnson, Author, Dav Pilkey, Photographer Scholastic $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-05465-9
In this exuberant celebration of love and sharing, Maya is given an Alaskan pig and learns that friendship is a two-way street. Johnson's humorous, upbeat text rings with its own rhythm as it introduces Julius, a pig with a fondness for old movies,...
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Angela Johnson, Author, A. Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Scholastic Inc. $6.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-07061-1
Called a ``wise and gentle book'' by PW, this is an ``irresistible'' portrait of a girl's close relationship with her two older sisters. Ages 3-6. (Mar.)
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Orchard Books (NY) $5.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-531-07072-7
A boy tells of the last few days before his family moves to a new home in a story that ""may well provide reassurance for parents and children facing a relocation,"" according to PW. Ages 4-7. (Mar.)
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Angela Johnson, Author, David Soman, Illustrator Orchard Books (NY) $14.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-531-05992-0
The bittersweet feelings that accompany the move from a familiar home to a new one are portrayed with a gentle hand in the latest offering from the creators of When I'm Old with You and One of Three. A boy tells of the last few days leading up to...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Ken Page, Illustrator Scholastic $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-06814-4
Sara is not at all sure she wants Mama to leave her with a new baby-sitter. Miss Alice nevertheless soon has her dancing to the radio (``These are my dancing shoes, Sara,'' she says), eating a snack, taking a walk (Miss Alice has brought her brown...
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Angela Johnson, Author, Angelo, Illustrator Orchard Books (NY) $16.95 (49p) ISBN 978-0-439-29316-7
With only the most tenuous memories of her mother, the young narrator of these evocative poems thrives with a loving father and her Aunt Lucille. But when her father says she can visit her mother, Ludie, the narrator's longing surfaces the...
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Johnson, Author, Angela Johnson, Author . Dell/Yearling $4.99 (112p) ISBN 978-0-440-41883-2
A sequel to Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street, this novel finds Charlie settled into her new neighborhood. She contentedly observes all the goings-on, including the arrival of two teenage girls and their father, a magician. Ages 7-10. (Dec.)
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Angela Johnson, illus. by Nina Crews. Millbrook, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5415-5777-2
Poet Johnson (Heaven) bridges fanciful aspirations and attainable goals in this inclusive portrait of girlhood. “I always dream” opens the airy, free-verse narrative. In collages superimposing crisp photos against swirling abstract backdrops, Crews (
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