Scorpions (Sale)
Author: Walter Dean Meyers
1989 Newbery Honor Book! 12-year-old Jamal Hicks is having a rough year. His older brother Randy, who was leader of the Scorpions, a Harlem gang, is in jail. With a local bully pushing him to fight and the school principal always on his case, Jamal is having a difficult time staying in school. His mother is working her fingers to the bone to try to earn the money for his brother's appeal. And Randy wants Jamal to take his place as leader of the Scorpions until he is free. Other gang members are against it — especially Angel and Indian — but Mack thinks Jamal should be the leader and gets Jamal a gun.
Jamal wants to do the right thing and earn the money to free his brother by working, but he is afraid to go against the Scorpions. His best friend, Tito, urges him to get rid of the gun and he knows he should, but part of him just can't bring himself to do it. As things heat up within the gang, everything comes to a boil when Mack kills Angel and Indian is thrown in jail. What is Jamal to do now? Ages 12 and up.216pp.
This 25th anniversary paperback includes a Q&A between Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman, coauthors of Kick, as well as sneak peaks at Kick and Myers' NY Times bestseller, Monster.