After Lennie Lippman's parents were killed in a car crash, his world changed forever. Forced to move in with his curmudgeonly Grandpa Maury and Grandma Minnie in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Lennie was lost in a new neighborhood with no friends and on the brink of flunking sixth grade. But the drama of Scott Norwood's game-deciding, field-goal attempt at the end of Super Bowl XXV in 1991 inspired Lennie to turn to kicking as a refuge from his struggles. Kicking and the local Jewish bakery became Lennie's escape from his languishing grades, boring home life, and bottled-up emotions. The Kicker is a story of grief, loneliness, the quagmire of adolescence, and the unexpected heroes and allies in our life journeys.