Works by
Jonathon Scott Fuqua
(Writer)

American Rowhouse Classic Designs (1997)
Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Victorian, Vernacular and other styles of East Coast rowhouses, drawn in detail.

The Reappearance of Sam Webber (1999)
Evoking a child's struggle to triumph over fear and despair, The Reappearance of Sam Webber explores the complex issues of race and class in the "fading light" of Baltimore. This debut novel will strike a powerful chord. The protagonist, eleven-year-old Sam Webber, has been called "Little Sam" his whole life, but Big Sam has disappeared, perhaps for good. Without his dad, Little Sam is just plain "Samuel" - and lonely. When he and his mom have to move from their comfortable Baltimore home to a rough inner-city neighborhood, he has plenty to be afraid of: the depression that seems to be engulfing his mother, the taunts of the middle school bully, his own grief, and bouts of nausea and hyperventilation. But when Greely, the janitor at his school, strikes up an unlikely friendship, Sam begins to see his life - like the varied rowhouses of his new neighborhood - in a gentler light. Will a surer, stronger Sam Webber emerge from the shadows?
(ages 10 and up)

In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe (2002)
When Sterling Tuttle discovers Poe's alleged secret diary, the Poe scholar suddenly begins to wonder if the writer's work was actually influenced by supernatural demons instead of psychological ones. In his macabre journal that recounts his tortured life, the enigmatic Poe describes creatures from another dimension that he fears have granted him his abilities for their own cruel reasons. Delving deeper into this supernatural mystery, Tuttle, who at first believes Poe's rants the creations of a psychotic mind, begins to wonder if his demons truly existed. In the end, the reader must decide.
(ages 14 and up)

Catie and Josephine (2003)
Catie Calloway's family has moved a lot, which is rough on an only child. When Catie arrives in another new school, she is glad to meet Josephine, a girl who appears in the big old house that is her family's new home. It's been ages since either girl has had a friend. Instantly inseparable, the girls share their very different worlds; and, though they are no longer lonely, they soon discover their lives are not without problems. Catie and Josephine is a story about the power of friendship and the creative things friends sometimes have to do to stay together, especially when one is invisible to grownups and a bit stuck in her old fashioned ways.
(ages 6 and up)

Darby (2003) -- Winner 2002 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award; Finalist 2005-06 Iowa's Children's Choice Award Finalist
Darby Carmichael thinks her best friend is probably the smartest person she knows, even though, as Mama says, Evette's school uses worn-out books and crumbly chalk. Whenever they can, Darby and Evette shoot off into the woods beyond the farm to play at being fancy ladies and schoolteachers. One thing Darby has never dreamed of being - not until Evette suggests it - is a newspaper girl who writes down the truth for all to read. In no time, and with more than a little assistance from Evette, Darby and her column in the Bennettsville Times are famous in town and beyond. But is Marlboro County, South Carolina, circa 1926, ready for the racial firestorm its youngest reporter unintentionally creates?
(ages 9 and up)

The Willoughby Spit Wonder (2004)
It's 1953, and Carter Johnston lives on Willoughby Spit, a narrow strip of land off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia that was formed overnight in a hurricane hundreds of years ago. The narrative traces an important summer in Carter's (and his family's) life, as his wild, humorous father slowly withers from illness. Carter happens to be a natural dreamer and schemer, a boy in love with comic books. He aspires to grow up to become Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, or if that doesn't quite work out, some other superhero. Still, before he can ponder his future adulthood or even his approaching teen years, he must determine how to show his father that death can be averted by force of will, that both inexplicable and unforeseen miracles can and will happen if one wants them to enough.
(ages 9 and up)

King of the Pygmies (2005) -- Nominated 2006 American Library Associations Best Young Adult Book of the Year
Havre-de-Grace, Maryland isn't the kind of place where miracles happen. It’s seen better days. That's why when fifteen-year-old Penn starts to hear voices, he is terrified. Further, these aren't just any voices, many are the thoughts of people close to him. He can hear his parents' unspoken marital issues, his retarded brother's silent anxieties, and a neighbor's descent into quiet desperation. And he can hear his girlfriend's tentative feelings of tenderness. His momma wants him to go to a psychiatrist to get examined for schizophrenia or some other related mental illness, but his similarly gifted Uncle Hewitt, a former police chief turned town drunk, tells him the truth as he knows it: Penn's ability to hear other people's thoughts and take away their pain doesn't make him sick. It makes him special. King of the Pygmies is the story of a young man's struggle to come to terms with a terrifying illness, and seeks to provide insight, hope, courage, and empathy between the reader and the characters in the book. All the while, it’s a fantastical mystery framed in an insightful, humorous, and poignant story. King of the Pygmies will entertain and compel conversation. What is psychosis? How does desperation drive the desperate? How do those individuals suffering onset mental illness perceive their situation? And what happens to a family in crisis? King of the Pygmies, bustling with unique characters, an off-beat story, and a distinctive geographical setting, is a novel of courage, determination, and hope.