The kids in Kwame Freeman's new sixth-grad class often trade barbs and are antagonistic toward each other as they navigate their way through one conflict after another. If they could just call a truce, they might be able to team up to play a charity soccer match to help raise funds to help a classmate whose father was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) while serving in Iraq. And they could support one another as the Iraq war and its aftermath continues and, one by one, their parents are being transferred to the war region. Kwame's new classmates on the U.S. Army base range from Angie Chatfield who seems to have everything in common with Kwame, to Zeke Evans, who becomes Kwame's nemesis and has a penchant for saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. Along with the laughs and zaniness, the class faces tough moments. How might a twelve-year-old deal with seeing his father sent to a war zone? Will it bother him enough to lead him to run away from home? Will it cause him to attack war protesters who have come to town? Will it lead him to take illegally obtained pills in order to sleep at night?