She wants a future - is that too much? This Thing Called the Future, the multiple-award-winning young-adult novel from J.L. Powers, is finally coming to South Africa, its country of origin. The book is set in Imbali, the sprawling township outside Pietermaritzburg. Khosi is fourteen years old. She lives with her grandmother and her little sister, Zi. Both her parents tell her of the past, about a time when hundreds of Imbali residents were killed in political violence. Khosi wants a future; she wants to help make South Africa a better place. Is that too much in an environment where some men believe that raping virgins, like Khosi, will cure them of AIDS? Meanwhile, Khosi has fallen in love and really, really just wants to experience that warm, fuzzy feeling that happens when Little Man, the handsome boy in her class, touches her hand. In a world where HIV and AIDS are treatable for those with money and access to good state-sponsored care, Khosi has to negotiate hours in clinic lines, vengeful men, her mother's disdain for traditional healers, her grandmother's faith in their sangoma, and the terrible curse her next-door neighbour has cast on their household. This beautifully crafted young-adult novel never preaches and never falls into the trap of “warning” teenagers against anything. It simply deals with the realities of township life and the hardships a young virgin faces. This Thing Called the Future has won several prizes in the USA. LAPA and Catalyst Press are proud to bring it back to its country of origin.

Can she raise a sibling and finish school? When her beloved grandmother dies, 17-year-old Khosi must learn to survive on her own. She has to take care of her little sister, Zi, while making a living as a traditional healer, and somehow try to finish school. When violence flares up again in Imbali, the township near Pietermaritzburg, Khosi finds herself at the centre of the storm. A taxi war threatens the safety of every person in Imbali, including Khosi's best friend and boyfriend, Little Man. The body of a murdered man is dumped on her doorstep. Accusations of witchcraft swirl around her, despite her every effort to keep her healing practice above board. When Little Man chooses the wrong path, Khosi builds a new romance, but her past might catch up with her. This is the sequel to Powers' award-winning novel This Thing Called the Future. In Under Water, we meet Khosi three years after the end of the first book. Can Khosi be a part of change in her community? And can she raise her sister while finishing school? There are few young-adult books that deal with raising a sibling. This one tackles that situation head on. Under Water is the sequel to This Thing Called the Future, a multiple-award-winning young-adult book that is being published in South Africa at the same time as Under Water. In the first book Khosi hears about, and experiences, feelings of being trapped under water while the ancestors try to speak to her. The sequel explains her journey into the future.

Best Fiction for Young Adults, American Librarians Association Best Young Adult Book Award, Texas Institute of Letters Best Teen Books, Kirkus Khosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of the disease of the day. Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who works in another city and is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor. She is afraid and Khosi doesn't know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs. Witchcraft? A curse? AIDS? Can Khosi take her to the doctor? Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways. School, though, is not bad. There is a boy her own age there, Little Man Ncobo, and she loves the color of his skin, so much darker than her own, and his blue-black lips, but he mocks her when a witch's curse, her mother's wasting sorrow, and a neighbor's accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma's hut in search of a healing potion. J.L. Powers holds an MA in African history from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford University. She won a Fulbright-Hays grant to study Zulu in South Africa, and served as a visiting scholar in Stanford's African Studies Department. She is the award-winning author of four young adult novels, The Confessional, This Thing Called the Future, Under Water, and Amina. She is also the editor of two collections of essays and author of a picture book, Colors of the Wind. She is the Editorial and Foreign Rights Director of Cinco Puntos Press, and is founder and editor of the online blog, The Pirate Tree: Social Justice and Children's Literature. She teaches creative writing, literature, and composition at Skyline College in California's Bay Area and served as a jurist for the 2014 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. She launched Catalyst Press in 2017 to publish African writers. She can be found at www.jlpowers.net, www.powerssquared.com, and www.catalystpress.org.

Khosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of the disease of the day. Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who works in another city and is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor. She is afraid and Khosi doesn't know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs. Witchcraft? A curse? AIDS? Can Khosi take her to the doctor? Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways.

School, though, is not bad. There is a boy her own age there, Little Man Ncobo, and she loves the color of his skin, so much darker than her own, and his blue-black lips, but he mocks her when a witch's curse, her mother's wasting sorrow, and a neighbor's accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma's hut in search of a healing potion.

J.L. Powers holds an MA in African history from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford University. She won a Fulbright-Hays grant to study Zulu in South Africa, and served as a visiting scholar in Stanford's African Studies Department. This is her second novel for young adults.

When her beloved grandmother dies, 17-year-old Khosi must learn to survive on her own. She has to take care of her little sister Zi, make a living as a traditional healer, and somehow try, despite everything, to finish school. When her beloved Imbali-an urban township in South Africa-flares up in violence, Khosi finds herself at the center of the storm. A taxi war threatens the safety of every person in Imbali, including Khosi's best friend and boyfriend Little Man. A murdered man is dumped on her doorstep. And accusations of witchcraft swirl around her, despite her every effort to keep her healing practice aboveboard. When Little Man chooses the wrong path, Khosi finds herself caught up in a new romance. But her past just might catch up to her.

After her grandmother dies, seventeen-year-old Khosi must learn to survive on her own-taking care of her little sister Zi, making a living as a healer, and trying to finish school somehow. But everywhere she turns in her urban Zulu community near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, she faces violence and loss.

When her beloved township Imbali flares up in violence, Khosi finds herself at the center of the storm. Accusations of witchcraft swirl around her, despite her every effort to keep her healing practice as a sangoma aboveboard. Competing taxi bosses seek her out for protective charms as they go on the warpath against each other. And then there's the whole problem of love. When her longtime boyfriend chooses the wrong path, Khosi finds herself caught up in a new romance. Will Little Man let her go live her own life?

J.L. Powers is the award-winning author of four young adult novels, most recently Broken Circle, a series starter she co-authored with her brother. She works as an editor/publicist for Cinco Puntos Press, and is founder and editor of the blog The Pirate Tree: Social Justice and Children's Literature. She teaches creative writing, literature, and composition at Skyline College in California's Bay A rea and served as a jurist for the 2014 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. She launched Catalyst Press in 2017 to publish African writers. She can be found at jlpowers.net, powerssquared.com, and catalystpress.org.

Amina lives on the edges of Mogadishu. Her family's house has been damaged in Somalia's long civil war, but they continue to live there, reluctant to leave their home. Amina's world is shattered when government forces come to arrest her father because his art has been officially censored, deemed too political. Then rebel forces kidnap Amina's brother, forcing him to become a soldier in Somalia's brutal ongoing war. Although her mother and grandmother are still with her, Amina feels vulnerable and abandoned. Secretly, she begins to create her own artwork in the streets and the derelict buildings to give herself a sense of hope and to let out the burden of her heart. Her artwork explodes into Mogadishu's underground world, providing a voice for people all over the city who hope for a better, more secure future. 'This touching story brings home vividly the dangers of creating art that seeks to be true - and all the more so during a vicious civil war, interwoven with religious extremism. Thankfully, Amina's teenage curiosity and courage also signal hope.' - Beverley Naidoo, author of Carnegie Medal Winner The Other Side of Truth