Set on the Lower East Side in 1885, this young-adult novel introduces a plucky young hero, Johnny Woods, breadwinner for a family of seven, and his near-hopeless tenement surroundings. Rather than work in a sweatshop, Johnny turns instead to the illegal sport of amateur prize fighting -- thus finding the criminal underbelly of old New York. Gripping historical fiction for ages 12-15.  (NYC122, $17.00)