Strength and resilience fuel an urban teens fight for survival in this acclaimed novel from Bil Wright that delivers a knock-out punch (Venus Magazine).Fourteen-year-old Louis Bowman lives in a boxing ringa housing project circa 1968and is fighting just to get to the end of the round. Sharing the ring is his mother, Jeanette Stamps, a ferociously stubborn woman battling for her own dreams to be realized; his stepfather, Ben Stamps, the would-be savior, who becomes the sparring partner to them both; and the enigmatic Ray Anthony Robinson, the neighborhood hoodlum in purple polyester pants, who sets young Louiss heart spinning with the first stirrings of sexual longing. Bil Wright deftly evokes an unrelenting world with quirky humor and a clear-eyed perspective in this deeply felt coming-of-age novel that reads like the best of memoirs (School Library Journal).