Have you read the entire Bluford series and still need more? Check out the list
below!
Non Fiction books
364.1/San
Lady Q: the rise and fall of a Latin queen, by Reymundo Sanchez and Sonia Rodriguez.
Traces Sonia Rodriguez's development into the Latin Queen gang leader known
as "Lady Q" and details the events that led her to realize that she must change her life if
she means to save herself and her children.
364.6/Kuk
No choirboy: murder, violence, and teenagers on death row, by Susan Kuklin.
Through uncensored, candid interviews with three inmates who committed crimes and were
sentenced to death as teenagers, author Susan Kuklin provides a fascinating look at the criminal justice
system and capital punishment in America. In addition, family members of both inmates and their
victims share their thoughts about the committed crimes and how sentencing has affected their lives.
610.9/Dav
We beat the street: how a friendship pact helped us succeed, by Sampson Davis.
An account of how three friends helped each other to make it through high
school, college, and medical school rather than follow their childhood friends into the
criminal life. Now the three doctors work in their home community helping others to
have better lives.
811/Sha
The rose that grew from concrete, by Tupac Shakur.
A collection of poetry by Tupac Shakur, written while he was around age nineteen.
921/Rod
Always running : la vida loca, gang days in L.A., by Luis J. Rodriguez.
A memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and
destruction that inevitably claim its participants.
921/Sha
Holler if you hear me: searching for Tupac Shakur, by Michael Eric Dyson.
Presents the life of Tupac Shakur focusing on his childhood, adolescence, education, hip-hop
rap, religious beliefs, and more.
921/Sha
Rebel for the hell of it: the life of Tupac Shakur, by Armond White.
A full length biography detailing each step in Shakur's development, from his
early exposure to racism and political activism to his studies of drama to his move
from New York to the West Coast and his innovative work with early hip hop culture
and music.
Fiction Books
F/Bac
Ship breaker, by Paul Bacigalupi.
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a
living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he
should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl. 2011 Printz Award winner!
F/Boo
Tyrell, by Coe Booth.
Fifteen-year-old Tyrell, who is living in a Bronx homeless shelter with his spaced-out mother
and his younger brother, tries to avoid temptation so he does not end up in jail like his father.
F/Boo
Kendra, by Coe Booth.
High schooler Kendra longs to live with her mother who, unprepared for
motherhood at age fourteen, left Kendra in the care of her grandmother.
F/Dra
Romiette & Julio, by Sharon M. Draper.
Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the
same high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harrassed by a gang whose members object
to their interracial dating.
F/Ewi
Party girl, by Lynne Ewing.
The death of her best friend Ana in a drive-by shooting causes fifteen-year-old Kata to question
her position in the Los Angeles gang life.
F/Gar
Shadow of the dragon, by Sherry Garland.
High school sophomore Danny Vo tries to resolve the conflict between the values
of his Vietnamese refugee family and his new American way of life.
F/Hin
The outsiders, by S. E. Hinton.
The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for
identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.
F/Joh
Muchacho, by LouAnne Johnson.
Living in a neighborhood of drug dealers and gangs in New Mexico,high school
junior Eddie Corazon, a juvenile delinquent-in-training, falls in love with a girl who
inspires him to rethink his life and his choices.
F/Mcc
Snitch, by Norah McClintock.
After Josh is charged with beating his friend Scott with a fish club, he insists he is innocent and
no one believes he is telling the truth because his fingerprints are on the club.
F/Mow
Way past cool, by by Jess Mowry.
Describes the lives of young gang members living on the edge in Oakland as they cope with a
rival gang, drug dealers, and other problems.
F/Mow
Babylon boyz, by Jess Mowry.
Inner-city teenagers find a suitcase full of cocaine and must decide whether to sell
it and take the opportunities the money would provide or to destroy it to keep the drug
from poisoning their community.
F/Mye
Dope sick, by Walter Dean Myers.
Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees
into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a weird man who shows different turning points in
Lil J's life when he could have made better choices.
F/Mye
Lockdown, by Walter Dean Myers.
Teenage Reese, serving time at a juvenile detention facility, gets a lesson in making
it through hard times from an unlikely friend with a harrowing past.
F/Mye
Autobiography of my dead brother, by Walter Dean Myers.
Jesse pours his heart and soul into his sketchbook to make sense of life in his troubled Harlem
neighborhood and the loss of a close friend.
F/Mye
Street love, by Walter Dean Myers.
This story told in free verse is set against a background of street gangs and poverty in Harlem in
which seventeen-year-old African American Damien takes a bold step to ensure that he and his new love
will not be separated.
F/Mye
Monster, by Walter Dean Myers.
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his
experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with
the course his life has taken.
F/Shu
Red Rider's hood, by Neal Shusterman
After learning that there are werewolves in his city, a sixteen-year-old is even more
surprised to discover the identities of the hunters who drove them out decades earlier, but
he soon infiltrates the Wolves gang to help destroy them for good.
F/Sit
Homeboyz, by Alan Lawrence Sitomer.
Seventeen-year-old Teddy Anderson, who is known on the streets as T-Bear, decides to seek
revenge on the person responsible for his little sister's death, which was caused by a stray bullet from a
semiautomatic handgun.
F/Sit
The secret story of Sonia Rodriguez, by Alan Lawrence Sitomer.
Tenth-grader Sonia reveals secrets about her life and her Hispanic family as she
studies hard to become the first Rodriguez to finish high school.
F/Sit
The hoopster, by Alan Lawrence Sitomer.
Andre Anderson, an African-American teenager who loves to play basketball, is happy about his
summer internship at a magazine, but his life is unexpectedly changed by a random act of violence.
F/Sto
Behind the eyes, by Francisco Stork.
Sixteen-year-old Hector is the hope of his family, but when he seeks revenge after his brother's
gang-related death and is sent to a San Antonio reform school, it takes an odd assortment of characters
to help him see that hope is still alive.
F/Str
Boot camp, by Todd Strasser.
After ignoring several warnings to stop dating his teacher, Garrett is sent to Lake Harmony, a
boot camp that uses unorthodox and brutal methods to train students to obey their parents.
F/Tel
Nothing, by Janne Teller;
When thirteen-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming
part of nothing, his seventh grade classmates set out on a desperate quest for the meaning of life.
F/Van
Snitch, by Allison Van Diepen.
Julia DiVino tries hard not to get mixed-up with the gangs at South Bay High School,
but when Eric Valientâe enters into her life, everything changes.
F/Van
Street pharm, by Allison Van Diepen. /
Inheriting the family business when his father is thrown in jail, seventeen-year-old Ty Johnson
becomes one of the most successful drug dealers on the streets of Brooklyn until a competitor enters the
neighborhood and a nasty turf war begins.
F/Vol
Rucker Park setup, by Paul Volponi.
While playing in a crucial basketball game on the very court where his best friend was
murdered, Mackey tries to come to terms with his own part in that murder and decide whether to
maintain his silence or tell J.R.'s father and the police what really happened.
F/Vol
Rikers High, by Paul Volponi.
Young Martin Stokes has been locked up in Rikers Island for five interminable
months for an unintentional crime. After he is caught in a razor fight between two
inmates, he is transferred to a different part of the prison where he gets the chance to
attend high school and meets a teacher who wants to help him.
F/Vol
Black and white, by Paul Volponi.
Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system
differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.
F/Vol
Rooftop, by Paul Volponi. /
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the roof of a New York
City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation
that follows.
F/Voo
The brothers Torres, by Coert Voorhees. /
Sophomore Frankie finally finds the courage to ask his long-term friend,
Julianne, to the Homecoming dance, which ultimately leads to a face-off between a tough
senior whose family owns most of their small, New Mexico town, and Frankie's soccerstar older brother and his gang-member friends.
F/Wil
Jumped, by Rita Williams –Garcia.
The lives of Leticia, Dominique, and Trina are irrevocably intertwined through the course of
one day in an urban high school after Leticia overhears Dominique's plans to beat up Trina and must
decide whether or not to get involved.
F/Woo
After Tupac and D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson. /
In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love
of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in
which they live.
All book cover art courtesy of Mackin.com
Copyright 2010 Evergreen Campus Library
Please make copies as needed!