Locked out

At odds with his sister, Tina, fourteen, who says their father murdered their mother, Todd, fifteen, who claims it was self-defense, begins to lose faith in their father when he pressures Todd to get Tina to change her story, and being in separate foster homes only makes things harder.

Seventeen years after she was born to a prison inmate, Deja agrees to raise her newest half-sister for the first six months, until their mother's next release, but despite the help of friends and relatives and a support program at school, caring for a baby proves to be a monumental task.

Since her mother went to prison to await execution, eleventh-grader Camila Hernandez has been shuffled from one aunt to another, avoiding friendships and keeping to herself in hopes no one will learn her secret, and worrying that she will turn out to be a criminal, too.

Puzzling over conflicting advice from family members, seventeen-year-old DeQuin Lewis continually faces trouble in his St. Paul, Minnesota, neighborhood, until a betrayal leads him to fresh start in an alternative school, one confrontation away from losing everything.

When Xavier's father returns to Boston after serving ten years in federal prison, tensions quickly mount and Xavier's anger explodes on the baseball field, making it less likely that he will achieve his dream of playing in the major leagues than that he will follow his father's path.

Puzzling over conflicting advice from family members, seventeen-year-old DeQuin Lewis continually faces trouble inhis St. Paul, Minnesota, neighborhood, until a betrayal leads him to a fresh start in an alternative school, one confrontation away from losing everything.

At odds with his sister, Tina, fourteen, who says their father murdered their mother, Todd, fifteen, who claims it was self-defense, begins to lose faith in their father when he pressures Todd to get Tina to change her story, and being in separate foster homes only makes things harder.

When Xavier's father returns to Boston after serving ten years in federal prison, tensions quickly mount and Xavier's anger explodes on the baseball field, making it less likely that he will achieve his dream of playing in the major leagues than that he will follow his father's path.

Seventeen years after she was born to a prison inmate, Deja agrees to raise her newest half-sister for the first six months, until their mother's next release, but despite the help of friends and relatives and a support program at school, caring for a baby proves to be a monumental task.

Since her mother went to prison to await execution, eleventh-grader Camila Hernandez has been shuffled from one aunt to another, avoiding friendships and keeping to herself in hopes no one will learn her secret, and worrying that she will turn out to be a criminal, too.