Book excerpt: From the best-selling author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton's Tex explores friendships, conflict, depression, self-destructive behavior, and truth and acceptance. This edition includes a new and exclusive Author's Note. Easygoing and reckless, Tex, likes everyone and everything, especially his horse, Negrito, and Johnny Collins' blue-eyed sister, Jamie. Life with his older brother, Mason, would be just about perfect if only he would stop complaining about Pop, who hasn't been home in five months. While Mason worries about paying the bills and getting a basketball scholarship--his ticket out of Oklahoma--Tex just seems to attract trouble. When everything seems to be falling apart, how can Tex find a way to keep things together?