Karyn Parsons – författare

_____Boston was nothing like South Carolina. Up there, colored folks could go anywhere they wanted. Folks didn't wait for church to dress in their fancy clothes. Fancy was just life. Mama was a city girl . . . and now I was going to be one too. It's 1944, and in a small, Southern, segregated town, eleven-year-old Ella spends her summers running wild with her cousins and friends. But life isn't always so sunny. The deep racial tension that simmers beneath their town's peaceful facade never quite goes away, and Ella misses her mama - a beautiful jazz singer, who lives in Boston. So when an invitation arrives to come to Boston for a visit Ella is ecstatic - and the trip proves life-changing in more ways than one. For the first time, Ella sees what life outside of segregation is like, and begins to dream of a very different future. But her happiness is shattered when she returns home to the news that her classmate has been arrested for the murder of two white girls - and nothing will ever be the same again.A beautifully written and deeply moving story about finding and fighting for your place in the world.

"Nourishes the spirit and fills the soul." - Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, author of Operation Sisterhood"Touching and inspiring." - Lisa Moore Ramée, author of A Good Kind of Trouble"A taste of history with the thrills of mystery and brims with family secrets." - Alicia D. Williams, award-winning author of Genesis Begins Again Judy Blume meets Jacqueline Woodson in this powerful and sweetly emotional coming-of-age story about finding your place in the world, from the author of How High the Moon.This was supposed to be the best year ever for eleven-year-old Stevie Morrison. But instead, her life seems determined to turn itself upside down.First of all, her parents can't stop fighting - and they decide to move the family to a totally new apartment, in a totally new part of town, which means a totally new middle school for Stevie. On top of that, her best friend, Jennifer, is acting weird. She won't return Stevie's phone calls, and apparently her new best friends are a bunch of mean girls.The final straw comes with the arrival of Stevie's teenage cousin Naomi - sent down in disgrace from Boston (though no one will tell Stevie why). But with Naomi comes an exciting glimpse of a world Stevie hasn't paid much attention to before: one of Cleopatra Jones movies, women's liberation and an intriguing-sounding group called the Black Panthers.It might not be the year Stevie anticipated. But it will be the one that changes her life forever.Praise for How High the Moon:"Essential reading, full of voices that must be heard. One of the best stories I've read in a long while" - Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse "An impressive debut" - Mail on Sunday

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary.How High the Moon, a Level 4 Reader, is A2+ in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing more complex uses of present perfect simple, passives, phrasal verbs and simple relative clauses. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly.Ella lives in a small, Southern town in the 1940s. In the USA at this time, black people are treated badly by white people. Ella's mother lives in Boston, but Ella does not know who her father is. When Ella visits her mother, she learns more about herself and the world.Visit the Penguin Readers websiteExclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers’ story comprehension and develop vocabulary.Clouds Over California, a Level 4 Reader, is A2+ in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing more complex uses of present perfect simple, passives, phrasal verbs and simple relative clauses. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly.Clouds over California is a story about an eleven-year-old girl called Stevie, and the changes that happen in her life when her older cousin comes to stay. It is also about life in the 1970s and important events that changed things in the United States of America for women and Black people. Visit the Penguin Readers websiteExclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

Before Garrett Morgan became a successful inventor and saved countless lives with his creations, he was a little boy with a head full of ideas on how to make life better for everyone.At a tumultuous time filled with racism and discrimination, Garrett became a prominent business man and skilled inventor who produced the traffic signal, a gas mask, and others objects still used today.This second book from the award-winning children's film series founded by Karyn Parsons, Sweet Blackberry, comes a little-known story about a man whose talent would be a gift to the world.