Martin Luna is in deep trouble. Just months ago, a horrible tragedy took his little brother, and now it threatens to take him too. On one side are his desperate mother, a friendly teacher at Bluford High School, and a pretty girl named Vicky. On the other are his old neighborhood and his hunger for revenge. Torn between the two, Martin stands at a crossroad, with his life hanging in the balance. Which way will he go?

Inspired by the harrowing true stories of those who hid from the Nazis in the sewers, this emotional testament to the power of friendship follows Ella, an affluent Polish girl, as she helps Sadie and her pregnant mother survive despite the worsening dangers of the war. 1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to...

A look at the drug scene in Baltimore through the eyes of the dealers, cops, and users.

"To Arthur Agee and William Gates, basketball means literally everything. Their only escape from the grim streets of Chicago's West Side is onto the neighborhood courts, where they and their friends dream of playing in the NBA. For most it's just a forlorn hope, but Arthur and William are different: barely out of grade school, they already display the raw potential that just might make their dreams come true."--BOOK JACKET. "Hoop Dreams began as a...

Explores life in an inner city Chicago housing project discussing the residents' daily encounters with neighborhood violence, drugs, and gangs.

An inquisitive young boy who lives with his mother and younger sister in a rough housing project in New Haven, Connecticut, approaches his tenth birthday with a mixture of anticipation and worry.

A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm describes the dissolution of a card-dealing WWII veteran named Frankie Machine, caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into wafer-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems. A literary tour de force, here is a novel unlike any other, one in which drug addiction, poverty, and human failure somehow suggest a defense of human dignity and a reason for hope....

Traces one year in the life of fifteen-year-old DeAndre McCullough and other people who live near the corner of Fayette and Monroe in West Baltimore, Maryland, telling of their struggles to survive in the midst of the drug market that dominates their world, and revealing the rays of hope that shine out of the troubled environment.

Stephanie decides to do something to get rid of crime and violence on her street, leading to a transformation of her school and neighborhood.

Three women, keeping secret the fact that they are nuns, are assigned to a ghetto clinic to assist a young doctor who falls in love with one of them.