The Season of Styx Malone

Written by Kekla Magoon

Narrated by Sullivan Jones

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!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9780525643463

Kekla Magoon

Kekla Magoon is the author of many novels and nonfiction books, including The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, The Season of Styx Malone, and Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People. Kekla received the 2021 Margaret A. Edwards Award for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. She has been a National Book Award finalist in addition to receiving an NAACP Image Award, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, a Printz Honor, four Coretta Scott King Honors, and two Walter Award Honors. Kekla teaches writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Visit her online at keklamagoon.com.

Reviews for The Season of Styx Malone

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun creative adventure. I have to reread Maniac Magee to be sure, but iirc this reminds me of that classic. I appreciate the themes in Magoon's story, and I appreciate that they're easy to learn because the all the characters and also the events and even the setting are engaging & authentic, too.

And as a bonus, Styx has a way with an epigram: "A happy ending depends on where you stop the story."

And even besides his big scheme, he just has an agile, creative mind. The boys are having the "who would win in a fight" discussion and Styx finally offers "Mystique, shapeshifted to look like Leia with a lightsaber, versus Amethyst, shapeshifted to look like Leia with a blaster."

I recommend this very highly to families and to the target audience, and will look for more by the author.

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great read -- all the boy summer adventures, a new friend with a hard past, and the tween testing of defiance. I feel like the lessons learned were good ones, on all sides. The characters were solid and engaging. Good stuff.

[lflareads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a summer adventure of exploration, trouble, realizations, and living! Styx brings adventure, life lessons, and appreciation for the families we have. Excellent middle grade read with heart:).

[acargile-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kekla Magoon writes in so many different genres. You should try some of her books--I’ve liked most of them. In this novel, I was confronted with what people are thinking that I could never understand. Now I know what is going through some kids’ heads when they do things that make me shake my head.

Caleb wants to be more than ordinary. His father is content living in their small town; he won’t even let them go on field trips to the nearby large town to see the museum. He feels the town knows them and they are safe; if they go too far, they may take risks he doesn’t want to take as a black family--or that’s what I assumed was his reasoning. His father often tells Caleb he is extraordinary, which Caleb interprets as being really, really ordinary. He wants adventure, freedom, and choice. In walks Styx Malone.

Bobby Gene is Caleb’s older brother. He and Caleb hang out together and plan on exploring the woods near their home. When he and Caleb give their baby sister away to a boy they always thought was a bully in exchange for fireworks, their summer plans change. Now they have to work with Cory--who really isn’t a bully--but does oddly love babies--doing chores for the summer. Cory wants his fireworks back, but the boys really want to keep them. In walks Styx Malone.

Styx offers to handle the situation with Cory. He figures out a compromise and offers it to Cory. Once Bobby Gene and Caleb see Styx’s ability with words and the ability to manipulate a situation, they are hooked, especially Caleb. Styx suggests they trade up. If they keep trading, they can trade to a motorized bike. Absolutely! Needless to say, Caleb and Bobby Gene begin to regularly get in trouble doing what their parents have forbidden although Bobby Gene has more common sense than Caleb; Bobby Gene goes along to keep on eye on Caleb. Styx makes everything so fun! Caleb loves the freedom of trying new things--who cares what his parents think! This thinking is what I have never understood. Why would anyone do some of the things they do? Caleb honestly wants the adventure and fears not having adventure. Styx’s life isn’t a bowl of cherries. The ultimate and inevitable culmination of events shows Caleb and his father that you can’t “be safe” or “have adventures” all the time. We are responsible for each other and to each other. These are the truths in this novel.

The cover looks a little childish, but don’t judge it by the cover. It’s a solid book for middle school.