Ship of Souls (AmazonEncore; February 2012) Set in New York City, Ship of Souls features a cast of three African-American teens: D, a math whiz; Hakeem, a Muslim basketball star; and Nyla, a beautiful military brat. This unique blend of speculative fiction and history explores the quest for belonging, the power of friendship, and the value of loyalty.
Reviews:
Booklist (starred):
“Urban fantasies are nothing rare, but few mesh gritty realism with poetic mysticism so convincingly. By turns sad, joyful, frightening, funny, and inspirational, Elliott’s second novel is a marvel of tone and setting, creating a universe where angry corpses and rock-monsters are every bit as expected as dirty subways and bag ladies. Issues of war, poverty, racism, Islam, and 9/11 do not bog down the telling but instead enrich it. Different readers will take away different messages, all of them powerful—quite an accomplishment for so few pages.”
Selected as a Booklist Top 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Youth Title
Read more reviews at the Ship of Souls blog.
*****
A Wish After Midnight (AmazonEncore; February 2010) Fifteen-year old Genna Colon believes wishes can come true. When Genna flees into the garden late one night, she makes a fateful wish and finds herself instantly transported back in time to Civil War-era Brooklyn.
To read reviews and excerpts of the sequel, Judah’s Tale, visit the Wish blog.
*****
Bird (Lee & Low; October 2008) 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.
- Lee & Low New Voices Honor Award
- Best of 2008, Kirkus Reviews (& starred review)
- 2009 ALA Notable Children’s Book
- Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent & Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award (won by Shadra Strickland)
- Bank Street College Best Children’s Book 2009
- 2009 Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers
- 2011 West Virginia Children’s Choice Book Award
See the publisher’s webpage for a complete list of reviews
*****
Stranger in the Family (Rosetta Press; March 2009) is a mixed-media memoir that documents my journey from Canada to the U.S., to Africa, and then back “home.”
Read George Elliott Clarke’s review.
*****
More titles can be found on the Rosetta Press blog.
*****
Anthologies
[...] reviews are great and endless – pages and pages and from sources as diverse as Rutgers University and Author [...]
Yay! My ship has come! I won’t have a chance to read it however, until, sometime in February. Thanks!