Best-selling author Walter Dean Myers has received two Newbery Honors and was the first ever recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award. At a young age, Lil J. Skin started stealing pain pills from his mom whenever he started to feel stressed-but now he's graduated to the big leagues. After Lil J. partners with a pusher named Rico on a sweet deal, events take a shocking turn when the buyer-an undercover police officer-is shot and Lil J. winds up wounded and hiding in a crack house.