Todd Hicks

Hard times in the slum Todd Hicks

Born in a section of Detroit where almost all the residents are people of color and living in poverty, Ramar, Lamar, Shamar and Shamarla Ricks are black (brown) kids who must circumvent drugs, gang activity and other vices to survive. Can these siblings who were born just months apart ward all this off long enough to make it through high school and progress to a better life?Ramar, Shamarla and Lamar will stand up to any bad person who tries to influence them into going down the wrong path. This catches up to them later; after they refuse to join a gang at one point then do something even bigger to rile shady people later on, they face lethal retaliation. They must persist through being shot at and more to make it through high school. Shamar is on a morality track opposite that of his sister and brothers, getting into trouble occasionally and sometimes not taking school seriously. His parents finally run out of patience. Now that he's running the streets with nowhere to go, he is headed for an even tougher fate. By the age of 18 all four kids have sealed their fate for adulthood.