Books published by publisher Amistad, 2012

"In Chasing Space, Leland Melvin tackles stupendous obstacles with dogged determination, showing you what is indeed possible in life—if you belive." —Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and Welcome to the Universe. This middle grade book is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom. Winner of the 2019 Grand Canyon Reader Award for Tween Non-FictionMeet Leland Melvin—football star, NASA astronaut, and professional dream chaser. In this inspiring memoir, adapted from the simultaneous version for adults, young readers will get to learn about Leland Melvin’s remarkable life story, from being drafted by the Detroit Lions to bravely orbiting our planet in the International Space Station to writing songs with will.i.am, working with Serena Williams, and starring in top-rated television shows like The Dog Whisperer, Top Chef, and Child Genius.With do-it-yourself experiments in the back of the book and sixteen pages of striking full-color photographs, this is the perfect book to inspire young readers.When the former Detroit Lion’s football career was cut short by an injury, Leland didn’t waste time mourning his broken dream. Instead, he found a new one—something that was completely out of this world.He joined NASA, braved an injury that nearly left him permanently deaf, and still managed to muster the courage and resolve to travel to space on the shuttle Atlantis to help build the International Space Station. Leland’s problem-solving methods and can-do attitude turned his impossible-seeming dream into reality.Leland’s story introduces readers to the fascinating creative and scientific challenges he had to deal with in space and will encourage the next generation of can-do scientists to dare to follow their dreams.Bill Nye the Science Guy says: “Leland’s story moves fast; once you get started you’ll want to join the chase.”

Since Chris Gardner's remarkable transformation from homeless single father to millionaire—chronicled in his number one New York Times bestseller The Pursuit of Happyness, which inspired the movie of the same name—he has been inundated with two questions: "How did you do it? " and "How can I do it too? " Start Where You Are is Gardner's power-packed reply. Focusing on real issues that impact individuals in all walks of life, he provides a road map for success. If you've had the rug pulled out from under you, are dealing with the loss of a home or a job, a health or financial crisis, or simply can't find the motivation to pursue new challenges, these forty-four clear, cogent, and accessible life lessons are invaluable. In Start Where You Are, Chris Gardner shows us how to tap into the infinite resources we already have on hand to move in the only direction—forward!

New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers tackles the social contract from a teen’s perspective in his novel All the Right Stuff. In one of his most thought-provoking novels to date, Myers weaves together political philosophy, basketball, and making soup in Harlem, with the depth that defines his writing career. After his father is shot and killed, Paul Dupree finds a summer job at a Harlem soup kitchen. Elijah, the soup man, questions Paul about tough life choices, even though Paul would rather be playing basketball. Over the summer, Paul begins to understand the importance of taking control of your life. All the Right Stuff includes a Q&A between Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman, coauthor of Kick.

Sparks will fly in this hip-hop-hot teen novel that mixes social protest and star-crossed romance, from Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Honor–winning author Kwame Alexander! He Said, She Said is perfect for fans of Walter Dean Myers and Rachel Vail alike. This paperback edition includes a Q&A with author Kwame Alexander.He says: Omar "T-Diddy" Smalls has got it made—a full football ride to UMiami, hero-worship status at school, and pick of any girl at West Charleston High. She says: Football, shmootball. Here's what Claudia Clarke cares about: Harvard, the poor, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the staggering teen pregnancy rate, investigative journalism . . . the list goes on. She does not have a minute to waste on Mr. T-Diddy Smalls and his harem of bimbos.He Said, She Said is a fun and fresh novel from Kwame Alexander that throws these two high school seniors together when they unexpectedly end up leading the biggest social protest this side of the Mississippi—with a lot of help from Facebook and Twitter. The stakes are high, the romance is hot, and when these worlds collide, watch out!

#1 New York Times bestselling author Steve Harvey helps you engage the Divine Spirit within you to find your life’s desire and use your own imagination to make your life’s vision a reality.At the beginning of each broadcast of his morning radio show, Steve Harvey offers his millions of listeners a few moments of spiritual advice to inspire and guide them. Fans love Steve’s wisdom and often share his insightful messages with friends and family. In this essential book, Steve expands on those daily words of wisdom by providing fans—and anyone in need of spiritual support, comfort, or guidance—this heartfelt collection of spiritual devotions. Steve beautifully and thoughtfully explains what faith is and how it can work miracles in our daily lives. He also talks in-depth about the power of human imagination and how we can use it to make our dreams come true. Steve believes that no vision enters our minds without our ability to make it a reality. As God inspires us to build and create a larger vision for our lives, Steve shows us that when we combine our inherent power with God’s divine plan, we can each achieve anything. Steve also reveals the power of using imagination, faith, and hard work to make our visions a reality. Written in an engaging storytelling format in Steve’s warm, inviting voice, each chapter of this thoughtful book offers invaluable advice and anecdotes that illuminate the power of imagination and how to use our God-given visions to enrich our lives.

The number-one New York Times bestselling author shares the secret of his success and teaches you how to achieve the blessed full life that belongs to youOn January 13, 2016, at the close of a taping of Family Feud, Steve Harvey spontaneously began to speak. Not knowing that the cameras were still rolling, the $100 million-dollar host offered his studio audience insights into his own happiness and success. His staff, also moved by Steve’s passionate words, shared the riveting six-minute video on social media. The clip immediately went viral, with more than 58 million views worldwide! In this very personal and illuminating guide, the #1 New York Times bestselling author elaborates on those spontaneous remarks. His message is simple: You need to JUMP like your life depends on it—because it does—if you truly want a life of peace and abundance. Jump explores seven vulnerable “seasons” in the Emmy Award-winner life: being homeless and living out of his car, flunking out of college, enduring the emotional turmoil of a second failed marriage, risking stability to pursue his dream of television stardom, overcoming the Miss Universe mishap, blending his family, and owing the Internal Revenue Service $20 million. Steve uses these uncomfortable moments to explain his core principles and teach you what it means to JUMP: · Identifying the lesson and the blessing in all that life brings our way;· Isolating particular moments when we must be still and when we must take action;· Implementing “humble aggression” to achieve our dreams;· Placing past mistakes in our rearview mirror and creating a fresh life story;· Letting go of people who are weighing us down;· Taking responsibility in the face of adversity. At the heart of this mesmerizing read is faith—the confidence in knowing that leaping will elevate our lives, and that we will be caught when we fall. Don’t stand on the cliff of life and watch others soar by, Steve tells us. If you take a leap of faith, God will open your parachute and “Give you life more abundantly.” Life is an incredible journey. It’s not good enough to exist—you need to live. You need to JUMP—to take a leap of faith, a risk toward the rich life God has planned for you.

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 time staying in school. His home life is not much better, with his mother working her fingers to the bone to try to earn the money for an appeal for Jamal's jailed older brother, Randy.Jamal wants to do the right thing and help earn the money to free his brother by working, but he's afraid to go against the Scorpions. Jamal eventually pulls free of the gang's bad influence, but only through the narrowest of escapes.Walter Dean Myers, five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, sensitively explores the loyalty and love between friends faced with hard choices. Scorpions is 25 years old, but the issues of poverty and violence make it a timeless powerful read—sadly as relevant as ever.This special twenty-fifth anniversary edition contains the original Scorpions novel, plus an extra Q&A with New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers—including questions about juvenile detention facilities, gang life today, and friendship.Also included are a sneak peek at Kick, by Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman, and an excerpt from Myers's New York Times bestselling novel Monster.

Lockdown is the powerful tale of fourteen-year-old Reese Anderson, who has spent 22 months in a tiny cell at a “progress center.” Living in fear and isolation, Reese begins looking within himself to find a way out of the prison system.Acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers offers an honest story about finding a way to make it without getting lost in the shuffle. Told with compassion and truth, Lockdown is also a compelling first-person read that "could resonate with teens on a dangerous path."*When I first got to Progress, it freaked me out to be locked in a room and unable to get out. But after a while, when you got to thinking about it, you knew nobody could get in, either.It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Then Reese gets a second chance when he's picked for the work program at a senior citizens' home. He doesn't mean to keep messing up, but it's not so easy, at Progress or in life. One of the residents, Mr. Hooft, gives him a particularly hard time. If he can convince Mr. Hooft that he's a decent person, not a criminal, maybe he'll be able to convince himself.Walter Dean Myers was a New York Times bestselling author, Printz Award winner, five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, two-time Newbery Honor recipient, and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Maria Russo, writing in the New York Times, called Myers "one of the greats and a champion of diversity in children’s books well before the cause got mainstream attention."*Kirkus

In his phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey told women what it takes to succeed in love. Now, he tells everyone how to succeed in life, giving you the keys to fulfill your purpose.Countless books on success tell you what you need to get that you don’t already possess. In Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success, Steve Harvey tells you how to achieve your dreams using the gift you already have. Every one of us was born with a gift endowed by our creator—something you do the best at with very little effort. While it can be like someone else’s, your gift is yours alone. No one can take it away. You are the only one who can use it—or waste it.Steve shows how that gift holds your greatest chance at success, and the fulfillment of your life’s mission and purpose. He helps you learn to define your gift—whether it’s being a problem solver, a people-connector, a whiz with numbers, or having an eye for colors. He makes clear that your job is not your gift; you may use it in your work, but it can also be used in your marriage or relationship, your community, and throughout every aspect of your life. Throughout, he provides a set of principles that will help you direct your gift. “The scriptures say your gift will make room for you and put you in the presence of great men,” Steve reminds us. This book is your roadmap to identifying your gift, acknowledging it, perfecting it, connecting it to a vehicle, and riding it to success. Because Success is the gift you already have.”Funny yet firm, told in Steve’s warm and insightful voice, and peppered with anecdotes from his own life, practical advice, and truthful insights, this essential guide can help you transform your life and achieve everything you were born to.

A powerful National Book Award Finalist from the acclaimed, bestselling author of Monster. "This novel is like photorealism; it paints a vivid and genuine portrait of life that will have a palpable effect on its readers." (School Library Journal starred review)With Harlem as its backdrop, Autobiography of My Dead Brother follows the diverging paths of best friends Rise and Jesse. When Rise becomes engulfed in gang activity and starts dealing drugs, Jesse, a budding artist, tries to make sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood plagued by drive-by shootings, vicious gangs, and an indifferent juvenile justice system.The innovative first-person storytelling, along with cartoons and photos, pulls in readers and makes Autobiography of My Dead Brother a strong and thought-provoking choice for sharing in a classroom or at home."Though the story is starkly realistic, there is always hope in the gifts of Jesse the artist and C. J. the musician, of schools and churches and of caring parents." (Kirkus)"Touching and impactful, Autobiography cannot fail to intrigue, and hopefully influence youngsters with its poignant statement of two roads taken." (Judges' Citation, National Book Award)

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie SmithOne of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

In this outstanding cultural biography, the author of the New York Times bestseller A Slave in the White House chronicles a critical yet overlooked chapter in American history: the inspiring rise and calculated fall of the black elite, from Emancipation through Reconstruction to the Jim Crow Era—embodied in the experiences of an influential figure of the time, academic, entrepreneur, and political activist and black history pioneer Daniel Murray.In the wake of the Civil War, Daniel Murray, born free and educated in Baltimore, was in the vanguard of Washington, D.C.’s black upper class. Appointed Assistant Librarian at the Library of Congress—at a time when government appointments were the most prestigious positions available for blacks—Murray became wealthy through his business as a construction contractor and married a college-educated socialite. The Murrays’ social circles included some of the first African-American U.S. Senators and Congressmen, and their children went to the best colleges—Harvard and Cornell.Though Murray and other black elite of his time were primed to assimilate into the cultural fabric as Americans first and people of color second, their prospects were crushed by Jim Crow segregation and the capitulation to white supremacist groups by the government, which turned a blind eye to their unlawful—often murderous—acts. Elizabeth Dowling Taylor traces the rise, fall, and disillusionment of upper-class African Americans, revealing that they were a representation not of hypothetical achievement but what could be realized by African Americans through education and equal opportunities. As she makes clear, these well-educated and wealthy elite were living proof that African Americans did not lack ability to fully participate in the social contract as white supremacists claimed, making their subsequent fall when Reconstruction was prematurely abandoned all the more tragic. Illuminating and powerful, her magnificent work brings to life a dark chapter of American history that too many Americans have yet to recognize.