Jones, Patrick

Do the crime, do the time behind bars. But once you've been in, it can be tough to stay out. Tension between African Americans and Somalis at Rodney's high school erupts into a food fight that turns into a riot. In the midst of the violence, Rodney helps a Somali classmate to safety. Soon Rodney and Jawahir fall for each other. Against the pleas of their families and friends, they can't help but follow their hearts. As groups on both sides of the fight harbor lingering resentment, Rodney and Jawahir are caught in the middle. Rodney is determined to avoid trouble, having served a previous stint at the County Home School. But in a world where hate seems to rule, can Rodney and Jawahir keep their flame of love alive? Or will their relationship ignite a fire that destroys all in its path?.

Do the crime, do the time behind bars. But once you've been in, it can be tough to stay out. Ian's band is finally taking off. And good thing he needs the money from gigs. But the band's front man and Ian's best friend, Orlando, can't catch a break as a black kid in their white town. Tension with a security guard lands both Ian and Orlando in jail, and when Orlando is held indefinitely, someone will need to take over the band until he gets out. When Orlando chooses Chase, the band's bassist, to step in, Ian is slighted. As Ian's resentment builds, he plots his revenge. One by one, he turns his bandmates against one another, with tragic results. As Ian holds his friends close and his enemies closer, no one can tell which is which until it's too late.

"In this remake of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in Williston, North Dakota, seventeen-year-old Hinton, released after a year in juvenile prison, faces rumors that his uncle--now married to his mother and running the family drug empire--caused his father's overdose. Conflicted, Hinton knows bloodshed is likely however he reacts"--Provided by publisher.

At odds with his sister, Tina, fourteen, who says their father murdered their mother, Todd, fifteen, who claims it was self-defense, begins to lose faith in their father when he pressures Todd to get Tina to change her story, and being in separate foster homes only makes things harder.

When Xavier's father returns to Boston after serving ten years in federal prison, tensions quickly mount and Xavier's anger explodes on the baseball field, making it less likely that he will achieve his dream of playing in the major leagues than that he will follow his father's path.

Seventeen years after she was born to a prison inmate, Deja agrees to raise her newest half-sister for the first six months, until their mother's next release, but despite the help of friends and relatives and a support program at school, caring for a baby proves to be a monumental task.

Since her mother went to prison to await execution, eleventh-grader Camila Hernandez has been shuffled from one aunt to another, avoiding friendships and keeping to herself in hopes no one will learn her secret, and worrying that she will turn out to be a criminal, too.

At odds with his sister, Tina, fourteen, who says their father murdered their mother, Todd, fifteen, who claims it was self-defense, begins to lose faith in their father when he pressures Todd to get Tina to change her story, and being in separate foster homes only makes things harder.

When Xavier's father returns to Boston after serving ten years in federal prison, tensions quickly mount and Xavier's anger explodes on the baseball field, making it less likely that he will achieve his dream of playing in the major leagues than that he will follow his father's path.

Justin, a bully at his Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, high school, is confused and angry when his father, a career officer he admires, admits he is gay.