Follow M. Francis Patterson into the realm of "Neonegro Folklore." Embrace his brutally honest portrayal of our most memorable neighborhood characters in ways we can't, even though we see them daily; on the corner, at our post funeral gatherings, and even at our coveted soul food establishments. With A Scandal and Other Things..., Patterson allows us to visualize the black experience with a leap into the unusual situations we're most often too afraid or embarrassed to talk about. The ghost we saw in the hall the other day, the little man who believes his mother has been trying to kill him, or the piece of equipment we've always suspected of having a mind of its own. A Scandal and Other Things... is truth, and life from the mind of a master of observation and will leave you convinced you know someone just like every character within its pages.

Pursued by menacing strangers through her small Midwest city, twelve-year-old Alyssha Dodson takes refuge in a mysterious room under a bridge, a place that turns out to be a doorway into another universe. In the country where she then finds herself, Alyssha learns that the pursuit has not ended. A powerful and sinister man, Lord Raf Var Ne, seeks to gain possession of an object she was given years ago by her older brother a few days before he went missing. Told she can't return to her own world, she begins a search for that brother, aided by Lord Raf's charming but impetuous stepson. In the process, the two become involved in a revolutionary conflict. Underland is the story of a girl's coming of age in the midst of an adventure like no other.