The story takes place primarily in Azz's cell, where he racks his brains trying to figure out what happened to him - he can't even get anyone to tell him what he's accused of, and suspects that they're trying to manipulate him into confessing. This is nothing new for him, but this time, he can't remember exactly what happened to land him there. He's a member of the MS-13, the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known for its pervasiveness and brutality. The Knife and the Butterfly is about a 15 year old kid named Martin 'Azael' Arevalo, or Azz for short.

I can't wait to share this book with my kids in Juvie! Thank you, Ashley Hope Perez, for writing books that need to be written. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected. She's connected to him, and he needs the truth. Lexi knows there's more at stake in her trial than her life alone, though. And her mother and her lawyer hope she chooses not to remember too much about the brawl―at least when it's time to testify. Lexi Allen would love to forget the brawl, would love for it to disappear back into the Xanax fog it came from. The only thing they make him do is watch some white girl in some cell. But he can't remember anything between that moment and when he woke behind bars.Īzael knows prison, and something isn't right about this lockup. He knows his MS13 boys faced off with some punks from Crazy Crew. But he can't really remember what happened or how he got picked up.

After a marijuana-addled brawl with a rival gang, 16-year-old Azael wakes up to find himself surrounded by a familiar set of concrete walls and a locked door.

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