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Rita Williams-Garcia Rita Williams-Garcia

Last updated on: March 18, 2010

Rita Williams-Garcia's African American characters tend to be cocky, self-centered but insecure teenagers with a strong need to find a comfortable identity in an often harsh environment. The vernacular language they speak is realistic; their problems are honestly portrayed. Unlike many novels about contemporary teenagers, family plays an important role in the lives of Williams-Garcia's characters, from Joyce's religious Aunt Em in Blue Tights and Denzel's middle-class Afrocentric father in Fast Talk on a Slow Track to Gayle's country cousin Cookie and her parents and grandmother in Like Sisters on the Homefront. The sensible decisions these teenagers make bring new hope to their previously troubled lives.

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Novels

Blue Tights (1988)

Fast Talk on a Slow Track (1991)

Like Sisters on the Home Front (1995)

Every Time a Rainbow Dies (2001)

No Laughter Here (2003)

Jumped (2009)

Books for Middle Grades

One Crazy Summer (2010)

Nonfiction

Food From the Outside (1999)

Books for Children

Catching the Wild Waiyuuzee (2000)

Short Stories

Into the Game (1993)

Wishing It Away (1997)

Chalkman (1997)

Crazy as a Daisy (1998)

Cross Over (1998)

About Russell (1998)

Clay (1999)

Making Do (2003)

A Woman's Touch (2003)

Mr. Ruben (2004)

Make Maddie Mad (2004)

General Awards

The PEN/Norma Klein Citation for Children's Literature (1991)

The PEN/Norma Klein Award for Children's Literature (1997)