When she drops out of school and struggles to start a career on Broadway in the fall of 1950, seventeen-year-old Kit Corrigan accepts help from an old family friend, a lawyer said to have ties with the mob, who then asks her to do some favors for him.
Examines the true life stories of several teens who have been involved with gangs, as well as the consequences of gang violence on a school and community.
Fifteen-year-old Shorty, a gang member from the slums of Site Soley in Haiti, is trapped in rubble from an earthquake, and as he weakens he has visions and memories of his life of violence, his lost twin sister, and Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Chino, a young Puerto Rican man with a bright future, looks to Willie Bodega, the New York City drug pusher who rules Spanish Harlem, for a favor and becomes ensconced in a world of betrayal and violence.
Brought to Moscow in 1990s Russia by his mother's abusive boyfriend, five-year-old Mishka is forced by a gang of homeless children to lie and steal until he finds comfort and love with a pack of dogs. Includes historical note.
Sixteen-year-old Maggie Alexander, whose younger brother died mysteriously a year ago, carries a secret that colors her relationships with her friends and others including the Knight gang and her ex-friend, Lauren Carver.
The author recounts his growing up in poverty in Los Angeles, his encounters with racism in school and on the streets, and his struggle to overcome prejudice, drugs, and violence.
When thirteen-year-old Sammy finds herself with an abandoned baby on her hands, she sets out to find the young mother, who may belong to a gang, and accidentally jeopardizes her position on the softball team.
