This book is very stereotypical. It is about three poor black people that live in Harlem in the summer of the 1970's. I probably don't need to go on because you could probably guess what the plot of the story is all about. But I'll go on. Like I said it's about three poor black people that live in Harlem. There is one grandma who is practically the parent of one teenager and one 10 year old. The teenager is involved with drugs and robbing convenience stores for food. The grandma is in poor health. The ten-year-old boy and the teenager apply for welfare. The teenager doesn't care about school so he drops out. All three live in bad living conditions. Like I said the book is very stereotypical. This is the worst book I have ever read. ... Personally I think the author could have thrown in a couple of surprises to make the book at least a little interesting.