In the final installment of his Hoopster trilogy, Sitomer delivers his darkest, most dramatic and most hopeful work yet.

Sonia Rodriguez was born in the United States, but her parents are Mexican immigrants who came to California before she was born. Her father has three Social Security numbers, her mother is pregnant (again), and neither of them speaks English. Sonia's mother spends most of her time in bed, watching soap operas, and letting Sonia clean up after her brothers. Sonia's father works dutifully to support his family, but he knows that his daughter's dreams are bigger than making tamales for family get-togethers. When Sonia attempts to put school work before her familia, her mother decides that it's...

From the book: "Once Upon a Time there was a little girl that PEEE-YEWWW had very stinky feet. Her name was Cinder-Smella and though she was very pretty and very nice, her family was very mean to her. Especially her evil stepmother and two wicked stepsisters, Rosalyn and Faye. They were jealous of her beauty. They teased her non-stop, forced her to do all the house-work, and NEVER let her wear socks. All of this made Cinder-Smella very unhappy. And then one day . . ." See why author Rodman Philbrick (Freak the Mighty) calls Cinder-Smella "Pure magic " and says that "Sitomer and Bair are the...

McCutcheon Daniels' life is full of bone-cracking violence. As a star fighter in the gritty underground Mixed Martial Arts circuit in the poorest section of Detroit, McCutcheon fights under the tutelage of his volatile and violent father, not so much for himself but to survive as protector of his beloved five-year old sister, Gemma. We get to know McCutcheon as he battles opponents who are literally trying to kill him and he struggles to find a way to protect her and himself. Along the way, he decides to trust a teacher who has taken an interest in him and discovers the truth about his mother...