With real wit and heart, Gary Soto takes readers into the lives of young people.

Meet Carolina, who writes to Miss Manners for help not just with etiquette but with bigger messes in her life; Ronnie and Joey, who feel so alienated from their world that they spend their days as "Teenage Chimps"; Javier, who knows the stories his friend Veronica tells him are lies, but can't find a way to prove it; Adan, who to his own shame and horror watches as his dad becomes a victim of the "Raiders Nation"; and many other kids, each of them caught up in the difficulties of figuring out what it means to be alive.