Red Now and Laters (PB)

Meet Ti John, a young boy growing up in Texan Creole culture in the 1980s, the decade of Reaganomics, disco music, and the candy of choice--red Now and Laters. Raised in a Black Creole family by a voodoo-practicing father and strict Catholic mother, he is blessed with a special gift: spiritual healing.

But life in the Houston ghetto where he lives is never easy. Ti John struggles to remain an ordinary kid, but even with a rodeo-star father he idolizes and the help of supernatural guides, nothing can shield Ti John from the roughness of inner-city life. He witnesses violence and death, gets his heart broken by girls, feels the anger of his own embittered father, struggles to live up to his mother's middle-class aspirations--all while trying to become the man he's expected to be. Will Ti John fall prey to the bad side of life--or will he recognize and hold on to the good?

Multilayered and multigenerational, this tremendous novel breathes new life into the coming-of-age novel through "a truly unforgettable world of spirits and magical men" (Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench). Red Now and Laters is a poignant and uniquely American story, as memorable and flavorful as the candy itself.