Because I'm Brown — Shannon Kennedy

Fifteen-year-old Rita Fernandez feels overwhelmed by all the problems that face her. They're only happening to her because she's brown! Her father won't allow her to date until she gets her grades up to a B average. What's worse is that he refuses to buy her the horse of her dreams until then, too! And a school counselor told her that there's no way she can ever be a veterinarian, a dream she's had since childhood. As if that isn't bad enough, the guy that Rita adores still sees her as a troublesome younger sister, not a romantic interest. He even tells other boys that she's too young to date and drives them away. Her grades are in the toilet and that jeopardizes her status as a Stewart Falls cheerleader. To top it all off, her mother hates Rita for blemishing her new, perfectly blonde family. Rita knows she isn't really dumb, it just took forever for her to learn to read. That still hurts her GPA. Even as friends rally around to help her, she sinks into depression when her mother wants to sabotage her quinceañera, the party Rita should have had a year ago when she turned fifteen. How will she ever overcome being brown?