Karyn Parsons Books

The narrative follows eleven-year-old Stevie as her life transforms with the arrival of her older cousin, set against the backdrop of the 1970s. It explores significant societal changes affecting women and Black individuals in the United States during this era. Designed for English learners, this Level 4 Reader features a carefully adapted text with complex sentence structures, supported by engaging illustrations. Additionally, it includes exercises for grammar and vocabulary practice, along with online resources for enhanced learning.

This was supposed to be the best year ever for eleven-year-old Stevie Morrison. But instead, her life seems determined to turn itself upside down. First of all, her parents can't stop fighting - and they decide to move the family to a totally new apartment, in a totally new part of town, which means a totally new middle school for Stevie. On top of that, her best friend, Jennifer, is acting weird. She won't return Stevie's phone calls, and apparently her new best friends are a bunch of mean girls. The final straw comes with the arrival of Stevie's teenage cousin Naomi - sent down in disgrace from Boston (though no one will tell Stevie why). But with Naomi comes an exciting glimpse of a world Stevie hasn't paid much attention to before- one of Cleopatra Jones movies, women's liberation and an intriguing-sounding group called the Black Panthers. It might not be the year Stevie anticipated. But it will be the one that changes her life forever.

Based on Karyn Parson's critically acclaimed Sweet Blackberry video series comes the story of Bessie Coleman, the first African American female to earn her pilot's license.

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. How High the Moon, a Level 4 Reader, is A2+ in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing more complex uses of present perfect simple, passives, phrasal verbs and simple relative clauses. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly. Ella lives in a small, Southern town in the 1940s. In the USA at this time, black people are treated badly by white people. Ella's mother lives in Boston, but Ella does not know who her father is. When Ella visits her mother, she learns more about herself and the world.

From Karyn Parson's critically acclaimed Sweet Blackberry video series comes the little known story of Garrett Morgan, an African American inventor who created the traffic signal.