Vinyl Moon

After Angel is beaten so badly by her boyfriend Darius that she winds up in the hospital, Angel's mother decides it's best for her to move from L.A. to Brooklyn to live with her uncle. Angel misses L.A., but she finds a refuge in Mrs. G's class. There she hears other students share their own pain and struggles, and she encourages Angel to read books by other women who look like her, women like Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Zora Neale Hurston, and she discovers that she actually loves reading. Additionally, she meets Sterling, a handsome fellow student who lives in her neighborhood. He and her other new friends help her to overcome her trauma and find hope through music. This is a beautifully written novel about a girl coming to peace with her past.