First published 2002
LaVaughn is fifteen and surrounded by violence and hardship in her inner city neighborhood. Guns are part of daily life. Money is scarce. The streets offer more danger than opportunity. But LaVaughn discovers something powerful through the people around her. Old friends show her different ways of seeing. New relationships open unexpected doors. Adults who care about her future become guides and teachers. They help her understand a crucial truth about survival and growth. Your circumstances don't have to define your destiny. The neighborhood may stay the same, but how you respond can change everything. LaVaughn learns that rising above her situation requires both courage and choice. Life becomes what you decide to make of it.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, contemporary, adolescence
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, rising-above
Setting: Inner City
Period: 20th-century
Paperback · Demco Media
Content warnings: violence