Al B Beard

The Heights Al B Beard

The Heights lies between Martinsville and Collinsville, Virginia. Technically a Martinsville neighborhood, the Heights seems to belong to neither town, at least as far as young Jim Stevens is concerned. For Jim, the Heights is just part of a rough factory town with little going for it.

Despite good friends and a loving family, Jim knows he wants out. On the streets of the Heights, a kid's reputation-and safety-is only as good as his fists. Jim has seen kids in the sixth grade fight their way into the emergency room, and one kid is an animal torturer and straight-up pyromaniac. No, the Heights is not where Jim plans to spend his life.

While plotting his escape, Jim lives a secret life filled with flights of imagination and childhood adventure while around him, the major events of the 1950s and 1960s unfold. And when an opportunity to escape the Heights presents itself, Jim is eager to take it, even if it isn't remotely legal. Based on the author's own childhood, The Heights tells the tale of a young man so desperate for something more he doesn't realize what he has, until it is too late.