Peach and Plum — M. Johnson

Welcome to Maverick Elementary. It's the first day of school, and Mayfair and Xembi are both new students. Neither of them has any idea they'll become a peach and a plum, and BFFs with their own little school yard clique, until mean-girl bully, Kiara Campbell tries to destroy them.

Maverick Elem(entary) is a place where mean-girl bullies get kicked out of their own clique. Where 5th graders, who are larger than life sports stars, hog the kickball court. It's where spontaneous dance battles with teachers pop off. A place where resting snooty-faced girls with snarky little attitudes turn on each other, and where shy little girls are forced to speak up.

There are girls who love sports, and popular quick-witted, mouthy boys, who are the center of attention in class; it's also about boys and their googlie-eyed crushes on girls with tenth grade attitudes, and boys who just want to play a game of kickball like their life depended on it. There's an overflow of positive Black male role models, and a season of birthday parties that spawns an unexpected sense of belonging and tribal clan bonding. Maverick Elem is a place where teachers can be neo soul bohemian, city slick hipster-ish, dapper-dan clean, and/or legendary. And last, but certainly not least, Maverick Elem is the setting for an actual H-E-A in the near, distant future...(happily ever after).

And that's just the half of it!

The story of Peach and Plum is a place where the Sun watches over the children, and the Moon protects them like a big brother.

A unique little world unto itself.