To help her poverty-stricken family, thirteen-year-old Lupita enters California as an illegal alien and starts to work while constantly on the watch for "la migra."
A textbook reader for young adults features "So far from the Bamboo Grove" by Yoko Kawashima Watkins, plus short stories, poems, and essays designed to build reading comprehension.
After a successful start in a boxing career, a Harlem high school dropout decides that competing in the ring isn't enough of life and resolves to aim for different goals.