Spread Your Wings

The inner city of Baltimore was not what I had pictured in my dreams. The streets were filled with hoodlums, with violence, and they were filthy. Who knew-even murders might have been committed on Washington Street. This was not the place for a kid from the suburbs who loved playing Cowboys and Indians. As my dad called, I knew we were here for good in our new old row house.

Thus begins the new novel from Louis Tabor, a story inspired by his own childhood in the inner streets of Baltimore. The narrator is a young boy names Fuzzy Duncan, aged twelve, who has to move to the inner city with his parents and brothers for economical reasons. The city is nothing like the neighborhood the Duncans moved from. The boys will have to adjust, and quickly, to survive. As the weeks pass, Fuzzy sees, hears, and does things no twelve-year-old could possibly be prepared for and finds himself and his personality changing. Whether it is learning about city life from the shoeshine boy, picking peaches with the snakes, swimming naked with the girls, or talking trash to prisoners, Fuzzy Duncan will produce a happy grin.