Two strong young adults each struggle for survival in contemporary Harlem: Motown is already a loner with only the wisdom of an elder to guide him; Didi dreams of college while her brother becomes drug dependent and her mother's sense of reality slips. Plausible circumstances bring these high-spirited teenagers together, and suspenseful events unfold the means by which they maintain their hopes. This novel is the winner of the 1984 ALA Coretta Scott King Award. (Age 14 and older)

Motown lives in a burned-out building one floor above the rats, searching out jobs every day, working his muscles every night, keeping strong, surviving. Didi lives in her cool dream bubble, untouched by the Harlem heat that beats down on her brother until only drugs can soothe him. Didi escapes, without needles, in her tidy plans and stainless visions, etchings of ivycovered colleges where her true life will begin. Didi can survive inside her own safe mind, until Motown steps into her real world and makes it bearable. Together they can stand the often brutal present. What about the future?