A CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR BOOK AND THE WINNER OF THE BOSTON GLOBE HORN BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION! "Extraordinary friendships . . . extraordinary storytelling." --Rita Williams-Garcia, Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-Winning author of One Crazy Summer Meet Caleb and Bobby Gene, two brothers embarking on a madcap, heartwarming, one-thing-leads-to-another adventure in which friendships are forged, loyalties are tested . . . and miracles just might happen. Caleb Franklin and his big brother Bobby Gene are excited to have adventures in the woods behind their house. But Caleb dreams of venturing beyond their ordinary small town. Then Caleb and Bobby Gene meet new neighbor Styx Malone. Styx is sixteen and oozes cool. Styx promises the brothers that together, the three of them can pull off the Great Escalator Trade--exchanging one small thing for something better until they achieve their wildest dream. But as the trades get bigger, the brothers soon find themselves in over their heads. Styx has secrets--secrets so big they could ruin everything. Five best of the year lists! NPR, HornBook, Kirkus Reviews, SLJ, Shelf Awareness Five starred reviews! "Reminiscent of now-classic works by Katherine Paterson, Natalie Babbitt and Lois Lowry, The Season of Styx Malone brings the darkness of fear and trauma into the bright sun of summer days.” — Shelf Awareness,  starred review "A summertime romp filled with trouble-making, camaraderie, and substance."— School Library Journal,  starred review "Heartening and hopeful, a love letter to black male youth grasping the desires within them, absorbing the worlds around them, striving to be more otherwise than ordinary. Please share."— Kirkus Review,  starred review "Spending time with Styx, Caleb, and Bobby Gene is an experience no reader will soon forget. "— Horn Book,  starred review "Interweaving themes of risk taking and trust, betrayal and forgiveness, Magoon  (How It Went Down)  crafts a novel that is genuinely funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting—extraordinary, in fact."— Publishers Weekly,  starred review Kekla Magoon grew up in Indiana but wanted to see the rest of the world. Now she travels all over the country meeting young readers and sharing her books, which include The Rock and the River, Camo Girl, and Shadows of Sherwood (The Robyn Hoodlum Adventures series). She has won numerous awards for her work, including two Coretta Scott King Honors, an NAACP Image Award, and the Walter Award Honor, and inclusion on the National Book Award Long List. She holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she now serves on faculty. Visit her online at keklamagoon.com and you'll see: she is anything but ordinary! Extra-­Ordinary   Styx Malone didn’t believe in miracles, but he was one. Until he came along, there was nothing very special about life in Sutton, Indiana.   Styx came to us like magic—­the really, really powerful kind. There was no grand puff of smoke or anything, but he appeared as if from nowhere, right in our very own woods.   Maybe we summoned him, like a superhero responding to a beacon in the night.   Maybe we just plain wanted everything he offered. Adventure. Excitement. The biggest trouble we’ve ever gotten into in our lives, we got into with Styx Malone.   It wasn’t Styx’s fault, entirely. And usually I’d be quick to blame a mess like this on Bobby Gene, but no matter how you slice it, this one circles back to me.   It all started the moment I broke the cardinal rule of the Franklin household: Leave well enough alone.   °°°   It was Independence Day, which might have had something to do with it.   I woke up with the sunrise, like usual. Stretched my hands and feet from my top bunk to the ceiling, like usual. I touched each of the familiar pictures taped there: the Grand Canyon, the Milky Way, Victoria Falls, Table Mountain. Then I rolled onto my belly, dropped my face over the side of the upper bunk and blurted out to Bobby Gene, “I don’t care what Dad says. I don’t want to be ordinary.”   “What?” he said.   I knew he was awake. His eyes were open and blinking up at me. He had his covers pushed down and his socks balled up in his fist. He must’ve heard me.   “I said, I don’t want to be ordinary. I want to be . . . the other thing.”   “What other thing?” Bobby Gene said.   I rolled onto my back. “Never mind.” I didn’t really know what I meant, but it was on my mind because of what happened last night at dinnertime.   Dad got home from his shift at the factory around six, which was normal. He turned on the television, piping through the house the sound of news reports about things that were happening so far from here that they barely seemed real. The reporters were always blabbing on about economics and politics and the constant breaking news.   But every once in a while I would see something that made me want to reach through the screen and touch it, you know? Like to ge