What does love and hate, truth and deception, friendship and jealousy, and life and death have to do with basketball? Everything, according to Sandra Raymond. Sandra is an outcast at her school on the west side of Chicago and dreads starting her first day of junior high, until she meets the neighborhood new kid, JoJo Barker, on the first day of school. A special friendship quickly develops between Sandra and JoJo, which helps them cope with the daily peer pressures and social cruelties of junior high. Their tight bond seems unbreakable, until they both discover that their mothers are hiding skeletons in closets. Secrets so dark and disturbing that they ultimately rip apart Sandra's and JoJo's friendship and lead to an irreversible tragedy that will forever change Sandra's and JoJo's lives. Baby Eagle is a reflective novel that takes place in Chicago circa 1992-1993, and bounces rhythmically around the game of basketball during a time when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls reigned supreme in the NBA and the original Dream Team made its debut in the Barcelona summer Olympics and became the most dominant force in the world of sports. You will laugh and cry and rejoice as you read the pages of this heartbreaking and heartwarming coming-of-age story that was written by Chicago native Jerrie Mason.