Five-year-old Frankie, his big brother, Earl and his little sister, Angela, are staying with their unreliable aunt while their father finds work. It's a rough neighborhood, where sirens blare and Frankie once saw a man pull a gun in the middle of an argument. Across town, Maynard and his neighbor, Addie, live in a seemingly safe, secure part of town. The five children's lives become linked after Frankie and Earl accompany their bullying, violent older cousin, Wayne, into Maynard and Addie's upscale neighborhood. While Wayne and Earl steal two bikes, Frankie finds a rabbit in a cage. It's soft, and he wants it for his own. The rabbit is Addie's and she is heartbroken when she finds it missing. While Maynard and Addie begin a search for the rabbit that leads them closer and closer to the unknown dangers of the neighborhood where the other three children live, Earl finds himself trying to stop his and Frankie and Angela's lives from spinning out of control after their aunt disappears and Wayne becomes an ever-more-threatening presence. A harrowing novel in which events always seem to be teetering on the edge of disaster is skillfully told at various times from each one of the five resourceful children's point of view, clarifying their distinctive personalities and situations as it hurtles toward an ending that is, ultimately, a welcome sigh of relief. (Age 10-13)

On their own... Frankie, Earl, and Angela aren't excited about spending the summer with Aunt Lula while their dad's away. But they have no idea just how bad it will be. When Lula disappears, the kids have no food, no money-- and no one to take care of them.

Someone has to take charge. Since Earl is the oldest, he feels responsible. His older cousin, Wayne, shows him how to steal bikes. It's a great way to make money, and Earl is desperate. But stealing bikes is not all Wayne does. And when he asks Earl to join him in a new money-making scheme, Earl is torn. It feels bad, but he needs the money. And no one is watching...