12-year-old Elena Barrios' father has AIDS, a new disease in 1992 with a 100% fatality rate. Rather than face certain ridicule and ostracism, Elena tells her friends anything but the truth, fabricating stories about him being a writer and researcher. But the reality is Elena resents her father’s illness and can’t face the fact that he is dying.

When she is befriended by an older black woman named Ang who tells stories about her own father and the history of prejudice against African Americans in the years before the civil rights movement, Elena is transported into these stories, allowing her to experience them first hand.With Ang's help, Elena must find the courage to stand up to the bully at her school, mend her relationship with her father, and finally say goodbye.

THE STORYTELLERS is a historical middle grade novel with a twist of magical realism.