The brilliant graphic adaptation of a backlist classic by the renowned activist and children's advocate Oprah Winfrey called "an angel from God" Long before President Barack Obama called his work "an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children," Geoffrey Canada was a small and scared boy growing up in the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where "sidewalk boys" learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, knife, and, finally, gun. In a stunning pairing, acclaimed comics creator Jamar Nicholas transforms Canadars"s raw and riveting memoir. Nicholasrs"s fresh and edgy art pounds past its borders to reach a new generation of readers with one of the most authentic and important true stories of urban violence ever told.

Geoffrey Canada is the president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, a nonprofit, community-based organization serving more than 17,000 children and adults, which has been featured on The Colbert Report, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and 60 Minutes and in the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of Fist Stick Knife Gun (Beacon / 0423-4 / $14.00 pb) and Reaching Up for Manhood (Beacon / 2317-4 / $16.00 pb).
 
Jamar Nicholas is an artist and educator. He was previously editorial cartoonist at the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest African American newspaper. He teaches at Moore College of Art and lives in Philadelphia.