This book shows how there are always going to be events to sidetrack us from achieving our goals. Deshawn (11 year old boy to start the book) lives in a ghetto neighborhood and has always been the smartest kid in school. But with lots of gangsters around his place and him having to make money for his family, he is not able to work on his work in school. He then is forced to join the gangster squad and soon learns it was a bad idea.