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Twelve-year-old Trevor has an adult problem to deal with: how to protect himself, his sisters, and his mother from his abusive stepfather (currently in prison) and he thinks the way to do that is to take up boxing--although he would really rather draw.

After not being allowed to take a boxing class at her school because she is a girl, Fleur deals with bullying and disapproval in her quest to set things right and ensure equal opportunity for all students.

When Bobby is unwillingly outed he turns to boxing, finding a hero in Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, but when Pacquiao publicly denounces homosexuality, Bobby must discover a hero within himself. Bobby's motto is self preservation. That's how he survived his notoriously violent high school unscathed. Being out and queer would put an unavoidable target on his back, especially in a Filipino community that frowns on homosexuality. When Bobby is unwilling...

In 1936 Berlin, fourteen-year-old Karl Stern, who is considered Jewish despite a non-religious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Schmeling while struggling with the realities of the Holocaust.