Hey Southlake and Grapevine listeners, Mike Hicks and Ball here.

Today, in a special bonus episode, I'm excited to share an audio preview of my new book.

They Came for the Schools, One Towns Fight over Race and Identity, and the new war for America's classrooms.

The book builds on our reporting in South Lake and Grapevine, revealing new details about the

political battles there and tracing how these fights have swept through towns across the country.

If you like what you hear, follow the link in the episode note to pick up a copy.

Now, here's an excerpt from They Came for the Schools.

Chapter 1 Perfect City, USA.

Early one morning in February 2006, Amy Roll loaded her three children into her Chevy Suburban

and set out from Los Angeles on a cross-country road trip in pursuit of a quintessentially

American ideal, a good school for her kids.

She pulled out before sunrise, hoping to escape the city before the morning rush, and headed east on Interstate 10.

Five-year-old Raven rode in a booster seat in back, watching movies on a portable DVD player as a blur of desert flashed by the side window.

In exchange for pacifying her 18-month-old baby brother, Roman, with an unlimited supply of

goldfish crackers and gummy worms, Jasmine, the 12-year-old, was given control of the car stereo.

She sang along to Unwritten by Natasha Bettingfield and Bring Me to Life by Evanescence,

as her mother, fueled by coffee, diet coke, and a sense of purpose,

kept an eye on the directions she'd printed off MapQuest to guide their path from California to Texas.

Role and her husband Reggie had for several years been raising their children in Studio City,

a Ritzie neighborhood just over the hill from Hollywood, where they'd both pursued

acting careers. In an only-in-L.A. romance, they'd met in 1998 on the set of Power Rangers' Lost

Galaxy, the seventh season of the wildly popular children's superhero fantasy series.

...