Villareal, Ray

Lon Chaney Rodriguez is a typical thirteen-year-old until his mother, a security guard, is shot and killed and he becomes haunted by the feeling that he is letting her down by getting bad grades, skipping church, lying, and goofing off while worrying that he and his alcoholic, unemployed father will wind up homeless.

Lon Chaney Rodriguez is a typical thirteen-year-old until his mother, a security guard, is shot and killed and he becomes haunted by the feeling that he is letting her down by getting bad grades, skipping church, lying, and goofing off while worrying that he and his alcoholic, unemployed father will wind up homeless.

Seventh-grader Jesse Baron not only misses his father, a popular professonal wrestler who is often on the road, he faces simple family outings that turn into fan-frenzy events, teachers who contrive excuses for parent-teacher conferences, and friendships that are all suspect.

Seventh-grader Jesse Baron not only misses his father, a popular professional wrestler who is often on the road, he faces simple family outings that turn into fan-frenzy events, teachers who contrive excuses for parent-teacher conferences, and friendships that are all suspect.

Feeling not as big, tough, or athletic as his father, a professional wrestler, high-schooler Jesse becomes friends with a brash young wrestler who offers to help Jesse bulk up.

Even though he knows his best friend Artie is a liar, when the coincidences start to add up, seventh-grader Joshua begins to believe there might be merit to his friend's idea of a body buried in the neighbor's yard.

Ninth-grader Rawly Sanchez's life is hard--his brother is in prison, he works at his mother's restaurant to help make ends meet, he is failing algebra, and the girl he has a crush on does not know he exists--but when his dramatic and impulsive rescue of a wealthy celebrity from a flooded creek makes him famous, he does not know what to think about his newfound popularity.