To young Sam Joseph, suburban Chicago of the 1960s was alive with kids who played all day and returned home at the first flicker of the streetlights. The neighborhood was filled with marauding bands of kids inventing games, establishing rules, and administering justice. Growing up in the company of his friends gave Sam the freedom to define his identity and navigate his way to adulthood. Home Avenue is a comic novel told in twelve short stories. It captures the magic of growing up at the end of the baby boom era, a time when parents were miraculously uninvolved in the minute-by-minute governing of childhood. This collection of stories depicts how this particular time, and Chicago itself, defines one's character.

To young Sam Joseph, suburban Chicago of the 1960s was alive with kids who played all day and returned home at the first flicker of the streetlights. The neighborhood was filled with marauding bands of kids inventing games, establishing rules, and administering justice. Growing up in the company of his friends gave Sam the freedom to define his identity and navigate his way to adulthood. Home Avenue is a comic novel told in twelve short stories. It captures the magic of growing up at the end of the baby boom era, a time when parents were miraculously uninvolved in the minute-by-minute governing of childhood. This collection of stories depicts how this particular time, and Chicago itself, defines one's character.