Zetta Elliott

Ever since his uncle committed suicide, thirteen-year-old Taj has been trying to hold his family together. He'd do anything to see his mother happy again so when Taj meets a strange woman in Woodlands Cemetery, he carefully considers her curious offer: directions to a magical door that will let Taj and his mother escape this world's misery. All he has to do in return is find something precious that was taken from the woman over a hundred and fifty years ago. But can Taj reach the portal once the vengeful ghost's wrath is unleashed upon the city?

It's lonely being the new kid on the block, especially when your family is "unique." Q has left California behind to start a new life in New York City with his two moms and baby sister. He can't wait for his dad to come up for the weekend, but the visit is canceled when Q's father gets arrested while attending a peace march. A special gift from his father leads to adventure, however, and Q is astonished when a medieval tapestry comes to life while he's visiting a nearby museum. With the help of two new friends, Q must face his fears and battle a villain who has waited five hundred years to destroy the world Book #4 in the City Kids series.

John Steptoe Award for New Talent in Illustrations Winner - American Library Association (ALA)In this gentle, award-winning picture book, an African American boy nicknamed Bird uses drawing as a creative outlet as he struggles to make sense of his grandfather's death and his brother's drug addiction. Young Mekhai, better known as Bird, loves to draw. With drawings, he can erase the things that don't turn out right. In real life, problems aren't so easily fixed. As Bird struggles to understand the death of his beloved grandfather and his older brother's drug addiction, he escapes into his art. Drawing is an outlet for Bird's emotions and imagination, and provides a path to making sense of his world. In time, with the help of his grandfather's friend, Bird finds his own special somethin' and wings to fly. Told with spare grace, Bird is a touching look at a young boy coping with real-life troubles. Readers will be heartened by Bird's quiet resilience, and moved by the healing power of putting pencil to paper. Bird, the recipient of Lee & Low's New Voices Award Honor, is the first picture book of both Zetta Elliot and Shadra Strickland.

Summer vacation has just begun and Dayshaun wants to spend Saturday morning playing his new video game. But Dayshaun's mother has other plans: she volunteers at a nearby community garden and that means Dayshaun has to volunteer, too. When Dayshaun puts on his grandfather's grubby old gardening hat, something unexpected happens-the hands of time turn backward and Dayshaun finds himself in the free Black community of Weeksville during the summer of 1863 While helping the survivors of the New York City Draft Riots, Dayshaun meets a frail old man who entrusts him with a precious family heirloom. But will this gift help Dayshaun find his way back to the 21st century? Dayshaun's Gift is Book #2 in the City Kids series.