J. L Powers

George was one of those kids. You know, the kind that never stays still. Then one day, the doctor said he was going blind. Did that slow George down? Not for a single second. In fact, he was so fast, he went on to break a world record for blind runners. And now he's breaking more barriers -- because ironically, George Mendoza, blind painter, paints what he sees. George started going blind at age 15 from a degenerative eye disease. It wasn't the sudden...

Amina lives on the edges of Mogadishu. Her family's house has been damaged in Somalia's long civil war, but they continue to live there, reluctant to leave their home. Amina's world is shattered when government forces come to arrest her father because his art has been officially censored, deemed too political. Then rebel forces kidnap Amina's brother, forcing him to become a soldier in Somalia's brutal ongoing war. Although her mother and grandmother...

Fourteen-year-old Khosi's mother wants her to get an education to break out of their South African shantytown, although she herself is wasting away from an untreated illness, while Khosi's grandmother, Gogo, seeks help from a traditional Zulu healer.

Collects fifteen short stories about keeping, telling, and learning secrets.