Roll Over, Big Toben

This young adult novel depicts a teenager’s struggle with the clash between the streets and the classroom.

Three things matter to fifteen-year-old David López: his family, his pigeons and his gang. But with the death of his father, David’s life in Little Arroyo becomes a struggle for everything he once cared about. "I’m gonna split . . . I’ve got to get out of here," David says, when his mother suggests that he live with his well-meaning, but misguided, Uncle Joe.

His home life in turmoil, Da...