Street Prince

Street Prince is a tender portrait of a twelve-year-old boy, grappling with tragic losses and unforgiving poverty.
After giving birth his teenage mother abandoned him at the hospital, leaving a scribble note: His name is Lamont, I am no fit mother. Keep my baby boy. Letty J. His maternal grandmother “Elma” raises him as her own child.
Thought to be dead, her estranged daughter returns home with two other children. A disastrous homecoming party takes place. Lamont meets a new classmate, the prim and proper Esmaria. The children plan to sit together at church the next day. Letty agrees to leave her children with her mother but demands money to do so. Her mother’s savings are not enough. She looks for and destroys her written confession. Out of spite, Letty rips away her children. Lamont dutifully obeys. He follows her and his younger siblings.
Letty has no money, and leads them into a downward spiral of utter chaos. They live in seedy flop houses. Through fraud, they obtain subsidized government housing and find a landlord who will take them in. Their new home offers little stability. Letty abandons her children for days on end, leaving Lamont and five-year-old Ivory to their own devices and for the care of their toddler sister. Reverend Brown searches for Lamont to ask Letty’s family to come to her mother’s funeral. Lamont makes an oath to protect his newfound brother. Lamont learns the futility of his promise. A fire ravages their apartment building.
Alone and traumatized, Lamont runs away from his foster parents. He trudges snow and icy streets unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Driven by the hope of freeing his mother, reuniting his fractured family, and earning Esmaria’s trust, a troubled young man must confront the shadows of his past. But grit and street smarts may not be enough this time. Meet Lamont Jackson, Street Prince, and a young man determined to succeed.


About the Author
A native of Kansas City, Missouri, J.P. Barelli earned a baccalaureate degree in government from S.M.U., a postgraduate degree from Thunderbird Graduate School for International Business Management, and a master’s degree in Applied Orthodox Theology from the University of Balamond, St. John’s School of Theology. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He has served as an assistant prosecutor, senior corporate attorney, supervising public defender, and Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore. Beyond his professional degrees, Barelli is a commercial pilot and serves as a chaplain and an ordained Roman Catholic Deacon. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.