Knockout Games (32 page)

There were several high profile cases, one of which was thrown out when a thirteen year old failed to testify at the last minute. The TKO Club was back out on the streets. Citizens were up in arms but the police were helpless. There was no pattern, no rhyme or reason. People were getting seriously hurt, both physically and emotionally. These kids had the run of the streets. It was like the
Lord of the Flies
, only instead of Piggy, they preyed on citizens.

This was crazy stuff, but what also grabbed my attention was that this was not a gang-affiliated activity. It was more like a social club. Fight Club for young teens, if you will. And sometimes there were girls in these groups.

I was immediately drawn to this unknown world. Who were these kids and why were they doing this? How could they think it was funny? How could they make videos of their conquests? I started Googling and the attacks went back years. It was one of these closed-off worlds we rarely get a glimpse into. And the kicker was: the one real lead that tied these assaults together was a person of interest called “the Knockout King.”

The librarian wanted me to talk to these kids at this school because they had responded to my book
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty
. She wanted me to reach out to them. I did and quickly decided that the best way to have an impact was to make this story my next project. I went home and started writing.

This is that story.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A big thanks:

To one of the best libraries in the country, St. Louis Public Library and its YA heroes: Carrie Dietz, Joan Smith, Patty Carleton, all of whom make me feel like a rock star.

To my early readers, for all their advice: Steven Lovy, Lynne Hansen, Joyce Sweeney, and especially Andrea Tompa.

To the St. Louis juvenile authorities: Nathan Graves and Rodney Smith, and to Principal Cornelius Green, for their stories.

To the
Riverfront Times
and the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
for their excellent coverage of the knockout game attacks.

To my medical expert (and along with his wife Robin, my biggest fans), Dr. Edward Schroering.

To Maurice Sendak, for saying, “Make it personal. Make it dangerous.”

To April Henry, for her criminal advice and twisted mind.

To the Internet, for making research a lot easier.

To my partner in crime (and agent), Edward Necarsulmer IV, for finding the way out of this detour.

To everyone at Carolrhoda Lab, for all their efforts, especially Giliane Mansfeldt and Laura Rinne for all the design headaches they had to deal with on this one.

To my editor Andrew Karre, for not being afraid to take chances.

And most of all, to Maggie and Zola, who make my life possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

G. Neri is the Coretta Scott King honor-winning author of
Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty
and the recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award for his free verse novella,
Chess Rumble
. His novels include
Surf Mules
and the Horace Mann Upstander Award-winning
Ghetto Cowboy.
His work has been honored by the Museum of Tolerance and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Antioch University, the International Reading Association, the American Library Association, the Junior Library Guild and the National Council for Teachers of English. Neri has been a filmmaker, animator, teacher, and digital media producer. He currently writes full time and lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida with his wife and daughter. Visit him online at
www.gregneri.com