Ernestine is too fat and acts like she can play the piano better than anyone - at least that's what Amanda thinks. Amanda is stuck-up and has a big mouth - Ernestine knows that's true. And to top it all off, Ernestine has stolen Amanda's best friend. There's no way Ernestine and Amanda will ever be friends. Now way. Music lessons, church, the Delta Sigma Theta Jabberwock, a party, a piano competition, and the truly gross fact that Ernestine's brother is dating Amanda's sister keep bringing the two girls together. And somehow they don't end up hating each other as much as they expected. As...

Both Ernestine and Amanda get an unexpected shock when they enter eighth grade at Du Bois. Their best friends, Alicia and Clovis, have decided to test the "waters of integration" by attending the formerly all-white Central Elementary. Ernestine focuses on rebuilding her friendship with Clovis after his year away. Amanda's increasing interest in boys reaches a height at a Halloween party both girls and their friends attend. Both girls experience a life-changing event that might help answer the question that has persisted from the very beginning: "Can Ernestine and Amanda ever truly become...

"McKendree ain't a who. It's a place." So begins this story about a group of teens who, for a variety of reasons, end up spending their summer at a lonely home for the elderly in the hills of West Virginia. ..". As told by fourteen-year-old Tilara and the others, this is also a tale of tangled summer romance, an element which transcends predictability as it unfolds entertainingly through the multiple perspectives of the characters... what distinguishes this book is its honest exploration of prejudice as it exists within a culture-and perhaps still does." - Kirkus, starred review ..". A...