Growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing projects, fourteen-year-old Cashay’s purpose has always been watching out for her younger sister, Sashay, and every week somehow coming up with a way for her family to make due on a couple of dollars and food stamps. But when Sashay is killed, and their mother begins using drugs again, Cashay has little desire to go on, even if she knew how. When she is paired with a mentor, Allison, however, who introduces Cashay to a bigger world outside the projects, will Cashay find the courage to try for a better life for herself? This novel manages to be both gritty, and inspirational.