Plenty of humor and realistic dialogue makes the characters come alive. Walter Dean Myers has written numerous books about the gritty life in Harlem. In this book he concentrates on kids who deliberately do good for one another, stay away from drugs and sex, and have fun together. Meanwhile, they help each other cope with serious difficulties.

Stuff and his friends keep getting sent to jail, first when they want to reattach part of an ear bitten off in a street fight between older boys, later when they chase a purse snatcher, catch him, and find themselves accused of the theft. Both of those incidents are easily solved, and contribute to the humor in the book. Even funnier is the dance contest, when Clyde dresses as a girl.

As the book progresses, however, while the kids still have fun, they face more dramatic problems. Clyde's father dies and Gloria's father leaves home. Clyde fails in his new academic courses, but decides not to quit them and later succeeds. Most serious, however, is the drug addiction of Carnation Charlie. When the kids try to help him and wind up in jail themselves, Stuff's father sticks with his son until it's determined that the kids are innocent.

The episodic story progresses until readers have a bright portrait of these kids who grow up in a tough neighborhood, but who remain kids. They have the support of their families and each other, and learn the difference between being people and playing roles.

Paul Zindel's The Pigman or Kazumi Yumoto's The Friends make interesting companion books.