"A collection of hot, hard stories ... exploring the many ways men work up a sweat in the steamy Southwest ... also includes the Houston streets stories-- sexy, touching tales about a neighborhood growing gayer every day"--Page 4 of cover

One night after Wolf Boy deafeats an English Stafforshire, he escapes, then travels over a 400 miles, and finally reaches Willa Webber’s family just as they are moving to New Orleans. The moving van wrecks and Willa’s German Shepherd puppy is rescued by Old Howler, an old gray wolf, with aching dugs, because she has lost her pups to hunters. Old Howler takes the pup to her den in the swamp, nurses it, then makes kills for it, and trains him in wolf ways. Heart-broken, Willa comes to the swamp with her father and Aunt Maggy and begs Jean to look for her puppy. Jean , impressed by the girl, keeps his word, but it takes him a long time to find the animal. Old Howler, though cunning, is old, and no match for the younger male wolf and his mate. Finally, the two gray wolfs surprise Old Howler, and Wolf Boy arrives too late to save her. Jean discovers the dog and uses fresh meat to entice him to come home. Jean captures Wolf Boy in the smokehouse. People come from afar to see the wolf-dog. Brush Lockwood, a dog fighting thug, steals Wolf Boy, takes him far away, and fights him in several states. Wolf Boy is undefeated. But he hates his masterhome—Jean’s home. Willa comes up from New Orleans, but decides to leave Wolf Boy with Jean.

Jean LeBlanc had lived in the Louisiana swamp country all his fourteen years. He loved the swamp, just as his father did. Jean had never gone to school, and neither had his father, but Papa taught him what a man needed to know in order to live in the swamp. Jean could shoot alligators, trap muskrats, and catch fish almost as well as any grown man in the bayou. But things were changing. Big caterpillar tractors were shoving up the black earth and filling the swampland with noise and blue diesel smoke. The state of Louisiana was building a road through the swamp, and the animals were moving farther into the wilds. A man couldn't make a living by hunting and trapping. Papa had to go to work on the offshore oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico, and Jean had to look after his mother and sister while Papa was gone. Taking his father's place proved to be more difficult and dangerous than Jean had imagined. But it was a maturing experience, and it helped Jean to accept the fact that nothing stays the same. Both he and Papa had come to realize that the old way of life was gone, and that for Jean, the new life must include school.

In the tradition of the modern classics The Tender Bar and The Liars’ Club, Blaine Lourd writes a powerful Gothic memoir set in the bayous and oil towns of 1970s Louisiana. In this rags-to-riches memoir of finding your way and becoming a man, Blaine Lourd renders his childhood in rural Louisiana­ with his larger-than-life father, Harvey “Puffer” Lourd, Jr., a charismatic salesman during the exploding 1980s awl bidness. From cleaning a duck to drinking a beer, Puffer guides Blaine through the twists and turns of growing up, ultimately pointing him to a poignant truth: sometimes those you love the most can inflict the most pain. Set against a lush landscape of magnolia trees and majestic old homes, haunted swamps and swimming holes filled with wildlife, Lourd gets to the heart of being a Southerner with rawness and grace, beautifully detailing what it means to have a place so ingrained in your being. Just as the timeless memoirs All Over but the Shoutin’ and The Liar’s Club evoke the muggy air of a Southern summer and barrels of steaming crawfish, so does Blaine’s contemporary exploration of what it means to find yourself among the bayous and back roads. Charting his journey from his rural home to working the star-studded streets of Los Angeles as a financial advisor to the rich and famous, Blaine’s story is about the complicated path to success and identity. With witty grace and candid prose, he pays homage to family bonds, unwavering loyalty, and deep roots that cannot be severed, no matter how hard you try.

A magical coming-of-age story from Coretta Scott King honor author Jewell Parker Rhodes, rich with Southern folklore, friendship, family, fireflies and mermaids, plus an environmental twist. It's city-girl Maddy's first summer in the bayou, and she just falls in love with her new surroundings - the glimmering fireflies, the glorious landscape, and something else, deep within the water, that only she can see. Could it be a mermaid? As her grandmother shares wisdom about sayings and signs, Maddy realizes she may be the only sibling to carry on her family's magical legacy. And when a disastrous oil leak threatens the bayou, she knows she may also be the only one who can help. Does she have what it takes to be a hero? Jewell Parker Rhodes weaves a rich tale celebrating the magic within.

“Librarians often say that every book is not for every child, but The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp is” (The New York Times). Meet Bingo and J’miah, raccoon brothers on a mission to save Sugar Man Swamp in this rollicking tale and National Book Award Finalist from Newbery Honoree Kathi Appelt. Raccoon brothers Bingo and J’miah are the newest recruits of the Official Sugar Man Swamp Scouts. The opportunity to serve the Sugar Man—the massive creature who delights in delicious sugar cane and magnanimously rules over the swamp—is an honor, and also a big responsibility, since the rest of the swamp critters rely heavily on the intel of these hardworking Scouts. Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn is not a member of any such organization. But he loves the swamp something fierce, and he’ll do anything to help protect it. And help is surely needed, because world-class alligator wrestler Jaeger Stitch wants to turn Sugar Man swamp into an Alligator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, and the troubles don’t end there. There is also a gang of wild feral hogs on the march, headed straight toward them all. The Scouts are ready. All they have to do is wake up the Sugar Man. Problem is, no one’s been able to wake that fellow up in a decade or four… Newbery Honoree and Kathi Appelt’s story of care and conservation has received five starred reviews, was selected as a National Book Award finalist, and is funny as all get out and ripe for reading aloud.