Growing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets as a child begging for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who wouldn't hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean has learned anything on the streets, it's how to survive. And not with fists- he is way too small for that- but with brains.

 

Bean is a genius with a magicians ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness.

 

What better quality for a future general to lead the Earth in a final climactic battle against a hostile alien race, known as Buggers. At Battle School Bean meets and befriends another future commander- Ender Wiggin- perhaps his only true rival.

 

Only one problem: for Bean and Ender, the future is now.