Lightning’s Run

How can Hiram follow his family’s nonviolent ways when a bully keeps beating him up? That’s the challenge for the 17-year-old Jewish immigrant living in 1870s New York City in this story, which helps launch the Bareknuckle series. Hiram sneaks out to the Woodrat Club, where he watches bareknuckle boxing and eventually trains with one of the champs, an ex-slave named Lightning. Issues of race, tolerance, and assimilation are skillfully threaded through this vibrant and gritty account. The strong friendship between Hiram and Lightning forms a solid core around which the realistic fighting action can bob and weave. Simultaneously available: The Giant by Jonathan Mary-Todd, Fighter’s Alley by Heather Duffy Stone, and The Big Fix by Nathan Sacks. Ages 11–up. (Mar.)