Jones, Traci L

After the death of her mother in an automobile accident, seventh-grader Serena, who has gotten the lead in her middle school play, is left to handle the day-to-day challenges of caring for herself and her younger brother when their father cannot pull himself out of his depression.

After the death of her mother in an automobile accident, seventh-grader Serena, who has gotten the lead in her middle school play, is left to handle the day-to-day challenges of caring for herself and her younger brother when their father cannot pull himself out of his depression.

After her mother is sent to jail, eighth-grader Patrice Williams moves to Chicago to live with her aunt Mae where she attends a school filled with gangs and drug runners, applies for a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, and learns there is hope for her future.

After moving to an affluent suburb of Denver in 1975, ninth-grader Tiphanie feels lonely at her nearly all-white high school until she befriends another "outsider" and discovers that prejudice exists in many forms.

After her mother is sent to jail, eighth-grader Patrice Williams moves to Chicago to live with her aunt Mae where she attends a school filled with gangs and drug runners, applies for a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, and learns there is hope for her future.