Peter Francis James

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.

Gentleman/bank-robber Jack Foley is back in prison doing a thirty-year sentence after a week-long escape. Brought in by Karen Sisco, US marshall, who got her man after being abducted with the escapees, Jack and Karen have a thing for each other, and Karen arrests him only after a meaningful 'time'out' together. Jack is resigning himself to doing time, lots of it, and he seems to have a friendly and easy control over the hardened criminals he is imprisoned...

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's novel is just as powerful today as when it was written -- in its reflection of poverty and hopelessness, and what...

Introducing Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con struggling to find his place in the world after 27 years in jail. Living in an abandoned apartment building in South-Central L.A., Socrates is one step away from the streets. He bags groceries at the supermarket, recycles bottles and cans for pennies, and feels himself slipping toward invisibility - until he meets 11-year-old Darryl, who is perilously close to a life of violence and bloodshed. Socrates' determination...

A black boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North Carolina form a precarious friendship.

The Scorpions are a gun-toting Harlem gang, and Jamal Hicks is about to become tragically involved with them in this authentic tale of the sacrifice of innocence and the struggle to steer clear of violence.

This Newbery Honor Book will challenge young men to consider their own decisions as they come of age in a complex and often frustrating society.

Pushed by a bully to fight and nagged by his principal, Jamal is having a difficult

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Docudrama recounts the remarkable legal strategy and social struggle that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.