This is one of the books selected for my Treehouse Book Club. It takes place during the 1970s shortly after the resignation of Richard Nixon. Sixth grader Armstrong LeRois has been enrolled in a busing program to take him from his neighborhood school in the Los Angeles South Central projects to a previously all-white school in wealthy Laurel Canyon. Charlie Ross will be attending that school as always even though many of his friends have been pulled from there by parents who disagree with the busing of African-American kids to the school. The boys are also dealing with their own issues at home. Charlie's older brother died recently and his mother is deeply depressed while his father is trying to hold everything together. Armstrong's dad is a Korean War veteran who lost his leg in battle and still suffers flashbacks from the war. Armstrong and Charlie engage in a lot of one-upmanship and some physical altercations before reaching a truce and ultimately becoming friends. The story also realistically covers the important adolescent issues of peer pressure and boy-girl relationships. Even though some of the 70s references will be lost on the kids reading it today, the themes are ones still apply to contemporary society.
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