Books like One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite

The Hate U Give tracks 16‑year‑old Starr Carter, a Black teenager from a poor Bronx neighborhood who attends an elite private school, as she confronts police violence, social media battles, and community turmoil after witnessing her friend’s shooting.

Justyce McAllister, a high‑achieving African‑American student, finds himself at the center of a police brutality incident that forces him to confront race, identity, and justice in contemporary America.

Rashad and Quinn wrestle with the aftermath of a police assault that sparks intense racial debate, told through their alternating perspectives.

When two teenagers from different backgrounds unexpectedly collide at a Friday‑night football game, a sudden riot forces them to put rivalry aside and rely on each other to survive a city in chaos.

Jade dreams of escape from her rough neighborhood and seizes a scholarship to a predominantly‑white private school, but faces the challenges of fitting in and navigating mentorship programs aimed at at‑risk Black girls.

A supportive African American family encourages a confident girl to believe in herself, inspiring a younger relative to do the same.

355 pages ; 22 cm680L Lexile

Millie Acevedo bore her first child before the age of 16 and dropped out of high school to care for her newborn. Now 27, she is the unmarried mother of three and is raising her kids in one of Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods. Would she and her children be better off if she had waited to have them and had married their father first? Why do so many poor American youth like Millie continue to have children before they can afford to take care of them? Over a span of five years, sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas talked in-depth with 162 low-income single moms like Millie to learn how they think about marriage and family. Promises I Can Keep offers an intimate look at what marriage and motherhood mean to these women and provides the most extensive on-the-ground study to date of why they put children before marriage despite the daunting challenges they know lie ahead.