G. Neri – författare

Suddenly, something big and white bumps up against the car, and I jump. I think I must be dreamin’, ’cause I just saw a horse run by.

When Cole’s mom dumps him in the mean streets of Philly to live with the dad he’s never met, the last thing he expects to see is a horse—let alone a stable full of them. He may not know much about cowboys, but what he knows for sure is that cowboys ain’t black, and they don’t live in the ’hood. But here, horses are a way of life, and soon Cole’s days of skipping school and getting in trouble in Detroit have been replaced by shoveling muck and trying not to get stomped on.

At first, all Cole can think about is how to ditch these ghetto cowboys and get home, but when the City threatens to shut down the stables—and take away the horse that Cole has come to think of as his own—he knows it’s time to step up and fight back.

Inspired by the real-life inner-city horsemen of Philadelphia and Brooklyn, Ghetto Cowboy is a timeless urban western about learning to stand up for what’s right—the Cowboy Way.

For Kalvin Barnes, the only thing that comes close to the rush of playing the knockout game is watching videos of the knockout game. Kalvin''s crew always takes videos of their KOs, but Kalvin wants more—something better. He thinks if someone could really see the game for what it was, could appreciate it, could capture the essence of it—that would be a video for all time. The world would have to notice. That''s where Erica comes in. She''s new in town. Awkward. Shy. White. But she''s got a good camera and a filmmaker''s eye. She could learn. Kalvin could open her eyes to the power he sees in the knockout game; he could make her see things his way. But first she''ll have to close her eyes to everything else. For a while, Kalvin''s knockouts are strangers. For a while, Erica can ignore their suffering in the rush of creativity and Kalvin''s attention. Then comes the KO that forces her eyes open, that makes her see what''s really happening. No one wins the knockout game. Coretta Scott King Award honoree G. Neri captures the notorious and terrifying knockout game and its players in an unflinching novel that''s hard to read and impossible to put down.

Logan never dreamed he would chop off his surfer shag, put on a Sears suit, and carry a Young Republicans ID card. But he''d rather look like a straight-laced loser than risk attracting any attention. Why? To raise money for college, he''s driving nonstop from Cali to Orlando. And he definitely doesn''t want anyone sniffing around inside his car.