{"product_id":"2940016208978","title":"The Unheralded King of Preston Plains Middle","description":"A lushly told reflection on a young man's passage into manhood\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cbr\u003eFrom irascible patriarch Alonzo \"Grandpa Tuke\" Tooker on down, the Hopkins family--altruistic Dottie, dissatisfied Chester, and their sons Langston and Trajan--are no typical residents of the Thames River Valley town of Preston, Connecticut. This is perhaps most true of Langston, a boy whose peers declare him to be the \"King of Preston Plains Middle School\": a vibrant young man dedicated to his dream of competing in Olympic-level Tae Kwon Do, as well as to his growing passion for his beautiful classmate Angelica Chu. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet when a terrible accident brings Langston's Olympic dreams to an abrupt close, Trajan Hopkins, the family's youngest son, must learn to cope alone with the coming trials of adult life: his slowly changing relationship with self-destructing childhood friends, his initiation into the world of women at the hands of a former teacher, and his growing awareness of the risky world outside his family's circle within the shadow of a Haitian drug lord's operation and the often-threatening local police who watch over it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJedah Mayberry's The Unheralded King of Preston Plains Middle marks the debut of a striking new voice in American fiction: intelligent, richly cadenced, slyly funny, and deeply thoughtful about what it means to be a son, a father, and a man.","brand":"River Grove Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074368880880,"sku":"2940016208978","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016208978_p0.jpg?v=1763630933","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016208978","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}