Kenny is a 10-year-old Black American boy living in Flint, Michigan, in 1963. He is in the fourth grade at Clark Elementary School. He lives in a rented house with his parents, his older brother, Byron, and his younger sister, Joetta (Joey). At the beginning of the story, Kenny shares that he experiences bullying from peers; friends are hard to come by for him, as indicated by his experience with “friend” LJ, who tricks Kenny and steals his dinosaurs. Kenny refers to fellow students at his bus stop who board in a daily hierarchy as “old thugs, young thugs, regular kids, then me” (27). This description shows his propensity for separating from his peer group. When Byron chooses to skip school, Kenny relates, the teasing on the bus is worse. Kenny first thinks Rufus, a new student from Arkansas, will draw the teasing and bullying away, but soon Kenny realizes it is better to have a sincere friend in Rufus than to use Rufus as a bully shield.

Kenny has a “lazy eye” condition in which one eye has trouble focusing on what’s directly ahead. He also has impressive reading skills, which his teachers promote and praise at school. Students tease him for both of these reasons, using a variety of nicknames with which to harass him: Egghead, Poindexter, Professor, Cockeye Kenny.