Leah Johnson

"Ellie Engle doesn't stand out. Not at home, where she's alone with her pet fish since her dad moved away and her mom has to work around the clock. Not at the bakery, where she helps out old Mr. Walker on the weekends. And definitely not at school, where her best friend Abby--the coolest, boldest, most talented girl in the world--drags Ellie along on her never-ending quest to "make her mark." To someone else, a life in the shadows might seem boring,...

Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school. After all, her family is black and poor, especially since her mother died. Instead, she has concentrated on her grades and musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced...