In this memoir adapted for young adults, Ta-Nehisi Coates recounts his father's struggles to keep his sons off the streets. At times, poetic and harsh, his father is focused on his sons' future in ways that seem intrusive to the boys as they both seem to drift apart and down different paths. Their father's goal is to keep them alive, away from drugs, and out of prison in Baltimore. This becomes a family affair as Coates family is large and extended to half-brothers, half-sisters, and mothers eager to help guide the boys into adulthood.