Playground

Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn’t have much going for him. He’s teased about his weight. He hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to so she could go to nursing school and start her life over. He wishes he still lived with his dad in New York City – where there’s always something happening, even if his dad doesn’t have much time for him.

Still, that’s not why he beat up Maurice on the playground.

Now his school is forcing him to talk to some out-of-touch lady therapist, as though she could ever fix him – as though she could ever figure out the truth. No, Butterball’s lips are sealed about what happened that day. But some tales can’t help being told. And this is one of them.

Inspired by 50 Cent’s own adolescence, Playground is a hard-hitting and inspirational story of the redemption of a bully.