Adonis is smart, intellectually gifted and born without legs; Autumn is strong, a great wrestler, and barely able to read in ninth grade--but Autumn is attracted to Adonis and determined to make him a part of her life whatever he or her best friend thinks.

Tow-Kaye just learned that the love of his life is pregnant - and though he knows what the right thing to do is, he's scared to death to do it. Jeffrey hates having a mom who dresses like a teenager, but when another sexy mom moves in next door - well, that's a different kind of problem. In these and twenty-two other short stories and poems, readers plumb the inner lives of African American teenage boys.

All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.

Ten-year-old Queen, a spoiled and conceited African American girl who is disliked by most of her classmates, learns a lesson about friendship from an unlikely "knight in shining armor."

Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.