What means more, shared values or shared blood? Maxie's choice changes
everything in this acclaimed companion to The Rock and the River.
Bad things happen in the heat, they say.
Maxie knows all about how fire can erupt at a moment's notice,
especially now, in the sweltering Chicago summer of 1968. She is a Black
Panther--or at least she wants to be one. Maxie believes in the
movement. She wants to belong. She wants to join the struggle. But
everyone keeps telling her she's too young. At fourteen, she's allowed
to help out in the office, but she certainly can't help patrol the
streets. Then Maxie realizes that there is a traitor in their midst, and
if she can figure out who it is, it may be her ticket to becoming a real
Panther. But when she learns the truth, the knowledge threatens to
destroy her world. Maxie must decide: Is becoming a Panther worth paying
the ultimate price?