Scorpions deals with growing up black or Puerto Rican in a slum section of a big city where gangs, drugs, broken homes, poverty, poor schools, and violence are a constant threat. Another novel that deals with living in the ghetto or about gangs is Paula Fox's, How Many Miles to Babylon? (1967). In it, to escape harsh reality, James fantasizes that he is really an African prince whose ancestors were brought to America to be slaves. While playing at his fantasy in an abandoned house, he is caught by a gang and forced to take part in the theft of valuable dogs. He becomes stronger as he escapes and assumes responsibility for the dogs, and he realizes the truth about himself, his mother, and his place in the ghetto.

In Eleanor Hull's Moncho and the Dukes (1968), two boys living in the same building in East Harlem are...