title: Sleepaway School: Stories from a Boy's Life
author:  Lee Stringer 
description: In his second memoir, Stringer (<i>Grand Central Winter</i>) retraces a troubled 1960s New York City childhood, one full of hope and promise that deteriorated into years of emotional pain. Born out of wedlock, Stringer and his brother lived with their financially struggling mother until bills overcame her, compelling her to turn them over to foster care. Stringer describes how, as a youngster, he fought other kids, kicked over desks and bad-mouthed instructors, never questioning his school counselors when they said he was full of anger. He questioned the difference between his black world and that of the white, "normal" one, where hate and intolerance seemed usual. Stringer was committed for two years to a school for at-risk children, where his Stringer's reputation for having a wicked temper followed him. Springer's lean prose renders his mother as a resourceful, determined woman who buys her rageful son a punching bag to vent his anger. Only through poetry and art did Springer find outlets for self-expression and a fresh start for the reminder of his youth (until his adult crash with drug addiction). Springer deftly tells a believable, candid and vivid tale of a person scarred by his past. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
   
  www.evernightpublishing.com
   
   
   
  Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent
   
   
   ISBN: 978-1-77339-126-7
   
  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
   
  Editor: Karyn White
   
   
  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
   
  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.  No part of this book may be
  used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
  reviews.
   
  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
  organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
   
  
   
  TO CLAIM HIS GIRL
   
   
  Sam Crescent
   
  Copyright © 2016
   
   
   
  Chapter One
   
  The start of high school was always a big deal, but this time it was different. Eli Waters climbed out of his car, and
  stared out toward the lake where he knew his friends would be. They had all been banned from writing to him. He’d known his
  father had made sure no mail had come t