After his DJ father is incarcerated for drug dealing, 15-year-old Tyrell, his brother and his mother are rendered homeless and move to a slummy city shelter in the Bronx. His mom’s ineffectual attempts at keeping the family afloat financially and emotionally soon fall flat, and Tyrell is forced to take the family’s situation into his own hands. Inspired by his father, he decides to throw a secret dance party in an abandoned bus garage with a steep admission charge guaranteed to boost his family’s income. Booth, a writing consultant for the NYC Housing Authority, clearly understands how teens living on the edge—in shelters, in projects, on the street—live, talk and survive. It’s the slick street language of these tough but lovable characters and her gritty landscapes that will capture the interests of urban fiction fans. While the complex party-planning plotline doesn’t exactly cut a straight path, its convoluted-ness undoubtedly illustrates the kinds of obstacles these teens must overcome and the connections they need to make in order to survive—inside or outside the law. (Fiction. YA)
