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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Caleb and his older brother Bobby Gene have led a sheltered, idyllic life in a small Indiana town where everyone knows one another. That’s the way their father likes it—ordinary. Theirs is the only African American family in town, and he wants his sons to fit in, so they can grow up safe and protected. But Caleb longs for something more. Even the science museum in Indianapolis would be a great adventure to him. Enter Styx Malone, a streetwise older African American boy who’s come to live with a foster family nearby. Styx is full of ideas that take both brothers out of their comfort zone. He partners with them in a series of escalator trades that starts with a bag of fireworks and ends with a motorbike. It all seems to be working like a dream until some of the trades start to involve illegal and dangerous moves. Caleb’s wry observant voice recounts the boys’ escapades through a summer that proves to be anything but ordinary, and also shows Caleb’s growth and maturity as he wrestles with trust, relationships, and ethical dilemmas. (Ages 9–12)

CCBC Choices 2019 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2019. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2019
Narrator Caleb and older brother Bobby Gene meet Styx Malone, a mysterious, lanky, smooth-talking teenager who adds excitement to their otherwise humdrum summer in small-town Indiana. The boys embark on a journey that encompasses rule-breaking, laugh-out-loud humor, and nail-biting adventure, while exploring the importance of family ties and deep friendships. Spending time with Styx, Caleb, and Bobby Gene is an experience no reader will soon forget.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from September 17, 2018
This memorable novel about three African-American boys in small-town Indiana opens with a trade: Bobby Gene and his little brother, Caleb, swap their baby sister for a sack of fireworks. Though the child is returned immediately, the brothers (ages 11 and 10) get to keep the fireworks. But what to do with them? Enter Styx Malone, a charismatic teen (who’s “sliding through the world like the air around him was greased”), who tells the siblings, “You just gotta learn how to make people give you things.” Styx convinces them that the trio can make a profit on the fireworks and, through a creatively convoluted trade-up sequence (involving old car parts, a lawn mower, and some Harley-Davidson memorabilia), could end up owning a snazzy moped. Beneath the entertaining shenanigans runs an affecting emotional current: Styx has ricocheted from one foster home to another and aches for a loving home; narrator Caleb grapples with the fear that he is “ordinary” and feels smothered by his overprotective father. 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. Ages 8–12. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown Ltd.

From Booklist

September 1, 2018
Grades 3-6 After meeting a fascinating new friend, two brothers have the summer of a lifetime. Caleb wants more than his sheltered life in Sutton, Indiana. But his dad knows how dangerous the world can be, especially for black boys, so he prohibits Caleb and his older brother, Bobby Gene, from having the adventures Caleb craves. When Caleb and Bobby Gene meet the cool, smart, smooth-talking Styx Malone in the woods one day, the boys hatch an intricate plan to procure a moped, which promises freedom and excitement. As the boys have adventures?some fun, some scary?Caleb discovers more about himself, his brother, and Styx, whose bravado belies a sad past. Magoon creates a summer adventure with humor, heart, and a touch of melancholy. Caleb's first-person narration is funny and effortlessly engaging as he yearns for something more than his small town and interacts with characters that both share and reject his thirst for extraordinary adventures. A hopeful story with a captivating cast of characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

From Horn Book

Starred review from September 1, 2018
It's summertime, and the living is easy. At least it was before narrator Caleb and his older brother Bobby Gene make a bad deal with their nemesis, Cory, leading to four long weeks of morning chores as punishment. It looks like things are going nowhere fast?until they meet Styx Malone, a mysterious, lanky, smooth-talking teenager who adds excitement to the brothers' otherwise humdrum summer. Living in the small town of Sutton, Indiana, Caleb and Bobby Gene are confined to play within the woods in their backyard. Caleb dreams of a chance to see the world?at least to make it to the big city of Indianapolis?and doesn't understand his father's stubborn insistence that they don't need to travel anywhere outside of Sutton. (Their father's fears for their safety, as African American young men, is mostly subtext.) Caleb doesn't want the ordinary life that his family lives, and Styx becomes the magic ticket to escape. The boys embark on a journey that encompasses rule-breaking, laugh-out-loud humor, and nail-biting adventure, while exploring the importance of family ties and deep friendships. Spending time with Styx, Caleb, and Bobby Gene is an experience no reader will soon forget. monique harris

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Kirkus

Starred review from August 1, 2018
Cooler-than-cool newcomer Styx Malone takes the more-sheltered brothers Caleb and Bobby Gene on a mischievous, path-altering, summer adventure of a lifetime as they embrace the extraordinary possibilities beyond the everyday in rural Indiana. Readers may think an adventure such as they'll find here wouldn't be possible in the present day; this story takes place outside, where nature, know-how, creativity, and curiosity rule. Creeks, dirt roads, buried treasures, and more make up the landscape in Sutton, Indiana. Younger brother Caleb narrates, letting readers know from the outset that he's tired of his dad's racially tinged determination that they be safely ordinary: "I don't want to be ordinary. I want to be...the other thing." With Styx Malone around, Caleb and Bobby Gene will sure figure out what that "other thing" can become. The three black adolescents are enchanted with the miracle of the Great Escalator Trade, the mythic one-thing-leads-to-another bartering scheme that just might get them farther from Sutton than they've ever dreamed. As they get deeper and deeper into cahoots with Styx, they begin to notice that Styx harbors some secret ambitions of his own, further twisting this grand summer journey. "How do you move through the world knowing that you're special, when no one else can see it?" begs the soul of this novel.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. (Fiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From School Library Journal

Starred review from June 1, 2018

Gr 4-7-Summertime in small-town Indiana only heightens 10-year-old Caleb's frustrations with feeling ordinary. When he and his older brother, Bobby Gene, meet smooth-talking 16-year-old Styx Malone, a whole new world of excitement, and its frequent companion trouble, opens up. Enthralled by cool kid Styx, Caleb and Bobby Gene are roped into an "escalator trade," whereby the boys attempt to trade small things for increasingly more valuable items in the hopes of eventually trading up to a shiny moped. The characters are magnetic; Styx in particular unfolds into a touchingly human young man withstanding the buffets of foster care. The themes of friendship, trust, rebellion, and safety strongly flavor the book without overpowering the easy fun. VERDICT A summertime romp filled with trouble-making, camaraderie, and substance. A solid purchase, especially for collections where realism circulates well.-Erin Reilly-Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From AudioFile Magazine

Moving with ease among a memorable cast of characters, Sullivan Jones narrates a coming-of-age story that wrestles with friendship, belonging, and what it actually means to be ordinary. After a lopsided, ill-advised trade (a baby sister for a bag of fireworks?!) lands Caleb and Bobby Gene in hot water with their parents, their summer is looking like one long slog. Enter Styx Malone, the smooth-talking older boy from across the way, who is anything but ordinary and knows a thing or two about making trades. The story unfolds through Caleb's eyes, and Jones dials into his energy and growing defiance as he struggles against his family's expectations. For the adult characters hovering outside the boys' world, Jones switches to deeper tones, creating authentic exchanges. A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine