A distinctive new voice in children's fiction Francie lives with her mother and younger brother, Prez, in rural Alabama, where all three work and wait. Francie's father is trying to get settled in Chicago so he can move his family up North. Unfortunately, he's made promises he hasn't kept, and Francie painfully learns that her dreams of starting junior high school in an integrated urban classroom will go unfulfilled. Amid the day-to-day grind of working odd jobs for wealthy white folks on the other side of town, Francie becomes involved in helping a framed young black man to escape arrest -- a brave gesture, but one that puts the entire black community in danger. In this vivid portrait of a girl in the pre--Civil Rights era South, first-time novelist Karen English completes Francie's world using lively vernacular and a wide array of flesh-and-blood characters. Francie is a 2000 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book.

Seventeen-year-old Francie Nelson is charming, saucy, and spoiled. Her father thinks it would be a good idea for her to see how other people live—in this case, the other people are the English. So she packs up and, with heels dragging the whole way, travels to what looks, at first, like the land of gloom. Her British fog lifts when she meets some boys. If only she didn’t feel so dumb and dumpy in Fairfields’ school uniform! But, like her English hosts, she keeps a stiff upper lip. It’s all she can do to control that lip when a school chum named Jennifer refers to her as a “Yank.” With the help of a friend she meets on a cruise, Francie adjusts in a tough boarding school where she faces prejudice, anxiety, and loneliness. She begins to experience more and more ups, until at last, she realizes she has grown emotionally, and has transformed herself.

Three years ago Francie Hampton shocked the ton by jilting Sir Thomas Spencer at their bethrothal ball when she discovered that he kept several lightskirts. How dare Sir Thomas now ask to marry her sister! Gentle Mary should not be married to a proud, tyrannical rake. But Francie protested too much against the man who long ago had won her heart...though not her hand. Regency Romance by Fran Baker; originally published by Belgrave House/Regency Reads

After her sojourn in England, vivacious Francie Nelson strikes out on her own—but this time she’s not reluctant to do it. Her goal? To become a famous artist. Unfortunately, after she unexpectedly ends up spending a year in Portugal, she is required to serve as companion to her ailing Aunt Lollie. Alas, the art lessons she so longed for must be set aside. Oh, but wait! Maybe there’s hope. Not to be thwarted, the headstrong and impetuous Francie manages to go to an art school after all. And while she’s developing her skills—and her Portuguese—she soaks up the seductive European culture and, oh yes, indulges in a bit of romance along the way.

Every winter, a young girl flies to Haiti to visit her Auntie Luce, a painter. The moment she steps off the plane, she feels a wall of heat, and familiar sights soon follow — the boys selling water ice by the pink cathedral, the tap tap buses in the busy streets, the fog and steep winding road to her aunt’s home in the mountains. The girl has always loved Auntie Luce’s paintings — the houses tucked into the hillside, colorful fishing boats by the water, heroes who fought for and won the country’s independence. Through Haiti’s colors, the girl comes to understand this place her family calls home. And when the moment finally comes to have her own portrait painted for the first time, she begins to see herself in a new way, tracing her own history and identity through her aunt’s brush. Includes an author’s note and a glossary.

Collecting more than a decade’s worth of excavations, comic strips, animation stills, storybook covers, and much more, this broken jigsaw puzzle of a graphic novel tells the story of Pim & Francie ― childlike male and female imps ― whose irresponsible antics get them into horrific, fantastic trouble. The brilliant, fairy tale-like backdrops hint at further layers of reality lurking under every gingerbread house or behind every sunny afternoon. Their loosely defined relationship only contributes to the existential fear that lingers underneath the various perils they are subjected to, which are threaded together by text and notes by the artist.

Francie, who has been traveling through Europe for more than five years, now finds herself resentful upon returning to her Midwest hometown Jefferson to deal with a family crisis. When she gets home, Francie confronts a crisis of her own . . . all of her old friends are married or otherwise leading what they deem as exciting lives. There may be no place like home, but compared to Europe and the liberating skills she has learned as an artist, she struggles with boredom and apathy. Restless and frustrated, she stumbles into not one, but two romantic relationships, and learns more about herself while discovering a new-found appreciation for her father. Romance deepens into love and at last, Francie has truly come home.