"There are neighborhoods where the folly of youth is just a myth - where adolescence is solely about survival. And there are neighborhoods where the sound of firecrackers might be mistaken for gunfire, but never the other way around. Neighborhoods where wearing the countenance of an absentminded daydream might be mistaken for a silent challenge for turf, and asking someone if they have a problem may cost you your life. But even in the harshest places, neighborhoods do cultivate a feeling of community.

And while the people who live in those places are invisible and often ignored by the rest of the world, every once in a while these communities, such as they are, manage to produce a kid who survives." "A young boy whose life is like a single rose growing in a forgotten lot is the narrator of Edgewater Angels. While his world is ugly from the outside, through him we are able to see the beauty, the humor, and the pain of life in a tiny part of San Pedro, California."--BOOK JACKET.