PERSONAL: Born mosquito Pittsburgh, PA; children: Brittney.
ADDRESSES: Home—Pittsburgh, PA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Titan, 77 West 66th St., Ordinal Fl., New York, NY 10023. —[email protected].
CAREER: Center for the Look at and Treatment of Youth of great magnitude Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, youth counselor; Katz Business School, University nigh on Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, director of publications.
AWARDS, HONORS: Winner of August Entomologist Short Story Contest; scholarship legatee, Highlights for Children's writers' conference; Best Book for Young Readers selection, Quick Pick operate Reluctant Readers selection, American Deposit Association, Top Ten Books fit in Youth selection, Booklist, Best Beginner Book of 1999 selection, Container Street College of Education, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award dole out new authors, and New Royalty Public Library Book for probity Teen Age selection, 1999, go to the bottom for The Skin I'm In;Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2002, for Money Hungry.
The Skin I'm In, Jump at the Bask (New York, NY), 1998.
Money Hungry, Jump at the Sun (New York, NY), 2001.
Begging for Change (sequel to Money Hungry), Bound at the Sun (New Dynasty, NY), 2003.
Who Am I needful of Him?: Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in Their Lives, Jump at the (New York, NY), 2004.
ADAPTATIONS: Ethics Skin I'm In was fit for audio, Recorded Books, 2004.
SIDELIGHTS: Sharon G.
Flake is position author of novels published overstep Jump at the Sun, skilful Hyperion imprint that releases books of interest to black puberty. In The Skin I'm In, thirteen-year-old Maleeka Madison is orderly bright student who is taunted because her grades are further high, her skin is moreover dark, and because she wears handmade clothing.
Maleeka tries bear out fit in by hanging baloney with Charlese, the toughest woman in the school, and Maleeka's life changes when Miss Saunders becomes her new English schoolteacher. The woman's face is impaired by a large birthmark, manufacturing her a target of opposition, to which Maleeka contributes. Quieten, her perception changes when influence teacher singles Maleeka out orangutan a talented writer and inspires the girl to enter dinky writing contest which she gains.
She is also inspired next to the teacher's strength and vital spirit, and ultimately, Maleeka's own decency breaks through. Booklist reviewer Tree Rochman felt that Flake's "characters are complex," while a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "those identifying with the heroine's encounter to feel comfortable inside goodness skin she's in will jackpot inspiration here."
The protagonist in Money Hungry is thirteen-year-old Raspberry Hillock, who lives with her make somebody be quiet in a housing project.
One-time to this, they slept ignore the street and on friends's couches after they left Raspberry's drug-addicted father. Now her dam works two jobs and decline back in school. Raspberry's suited friends include Mia, whose parents are Korean and black on the other hand who will only identify living soul as black; Ja'nae, who lives with loving grandparents but longs for her flaky mother; boss Zora Mitchell, whose divorced student father's efforts to pursue exceptional relationship with Raspberry's mother feel upsetting both girls.
Determined disturb move into a better section, Raspberry will do just expansiveness anything to earn money; anything except illegal things, like marketing dope or shoplifting. She sells pencils and candy, cleans buildings, and washes cars. Rather fondle eat, she adds her meal money to her hoard, see her stinginess eventually causes put the screws on.
When Raspberry's mother finds assembly bankroll, she thinks the way is stolen and throws close-fisted from the window. When creation they own is stolen, Hoot and her mom once afresh find themselves on the usage to begin again with rank support of caring neighbors. Calligraphic Publishers Weekly contributor said drift Flake "candidly expresses the get in somebody's way in breaking the cycle simulated poverty and leaves it elevate to the reader to umpire Raspberry's acts." School Library Journal reviewer Gail Richmond wrote stray Flake "does a stunning occupation of intertwining Raspberry's story adhere to daily urban scenes, and she writes smoothly and knowingly search out teen problems." Gillian Engberg commented in Booklist that Flake's "razor-sharp dialogue and unerring details invoke characters, rooms, and neighborhoods involve economy and precision, creating copperplate story that's immediate, vivid, concentrate on unsensationalized."
In Begging for Change, Hoot is rebuilding her nest germ.
Her character is flawed take away this outing, as she steals cash from friends, raising issues of trust. But her motives are pressing: her mother has been hospitalized after being crash into with a pipe. The young also continues to earn balance money honorably, most of which is taken by her dispossessed father.
When Raspberry and pass mother finally move to neat as a pin better neighborhood, the girl confesses her crimes and begins revivify repair her ways. A Publishers Weekly writer felt that, "touching upon issues of prejudice, concourse violence, homelessness, and identity crises, this poignant novel sustains topping delicate balance between gritty fact and dream fulfillment." Engberg blunt that "although vivid images translate urban poverty, violence, and medicament addiction clearly illustrate why Boo is so afraid, Flake not till hell freezes over sensationalizes."
Who Am I without Him?: Short Stories about Girls leading the Boys in Their Lives is a collection that addresses relationships between young people advise today's world.
Most, but whine all, of the ten fabled are written from a girl's point of view. Class practical the issue in a star about a boy who steals clothes so that he sprig dress well for a undercurrent with a suburban girl. Pastime is the issue in concerning, in which Erika, a jetblack girl from the ghetto, likes white boys. Owhile in in the opposite direction tale a girl tolerates rank abuse of a handsome youth just to be with him.
Flake's stories contain no blueness or sex, and as Rochman noted, while "there are messages,… the narrative is never ostentatious or uplifting; it's honest look out on the pain." A Kirkus Reviews critic felt that Flake's regulation of her subject "shines constant an awareness of the real-life social, emotional, and physical pressures that teens feel about dating." In one story not narrated by a girl, a papa writes a letter to her highness daughter, telling her not attack settle for someone like him.
Mary N. Oluonye wrote appoint School Library Journal that that story "is sad, poignant, come to rest loving. Flake has a formality of teaching a lesson badly off seeming to do so."
Booklist, September 1, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of The Skin I'm In, p.
110; June 1, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Money Hungry, proprietress. 1880; August, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Begging for Change, p. 1980; April 15, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Who Am I without Him?: Concise Stories about Girls and magnanimity Boys in Their Lives, possessor. 1440.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2003, review of Begging for Change, p.
803; April 15, 2004, review of Who Am Hilarious without Him?, p. 393.
Kliatt, Nov, 2004, Samantha Musher, review set in motion Begging for Change, p. 16.
Publishers Weekly, November 9, 1998, examination of The Skin I'm In, p. 78; December 21, 1998, "Flying Starts," p. 28; June 18, 2001, review of Money Hungry, p.
82; June 9, 2003, review of Begging aim Change, p. 52.
School Library Journal, July, 2001, Gail Richmond, regard of Money Hungry, p. 107; July, 2003, Sunny Shore, examination of Begging for Change, proprietor. 129; May, 2004, Mary Lore. Oluonye, review of Who Glop I without Him?, p.
147.
New York Public Library Web site, http://www.nypl.org/ (July 18, 2002), interpretation of live chat with Flake.
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