Fourteen Cracks

Malik is sixteen years old, growing up with nothing on the Eastside — except a sketchbook full of inventions nobody takes seriously. Then Amara, a brilliant new girl at school, looks at his drawings and tells him what no one ever has: he's a real inventor. What follows is a gripping, emotional journey through poverty, betrayal, and second chances — from a garage workbench to a $10,000 innovation prize, from losing everything to building an empire of light. His solar lantern, the Ember, changes his life. But the fire that forged him changes it more. Fourteen Cracks is a novel about the breaks that make us — and the one person who believes in us before we believe in ourselves.