The Beet Fields

Related TitlesOther books by Margaret Haddix in Red Fox:Running Out of Time, 0099402831Turnabout, 0099427087Amongst the Hidden, 0099402939Amongst the Imposters, 0099413469

Not for the faint-hearted, opening with a sickening scene of incest forcing a 16-year-old boy to leave home and gathering momentum with gritty, though never gratuitous, scenes of painful childbirth, pigeon neck-ringing and exploding pheasants. But it works

Paulsen's coming-of-age memoir is nearly Steinbeckian in its unadorned but effective prose, and the events of the author's young life have a universality that will draw in readers heading for their own rites of passage

Gary Paulsen grew up in the Philippines and has worked as a sailor, archer, trapper, singer, actor and carnival worker, amongst others. He is the author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, and has won the prestigious Newbery Honor Award three times, for his books The Winter Room, Hatchet and Dogsong. He lives in New Mexico and on a boat in the Pacific, with his wife, the painter Ruth Wright Paulsen.

America, 1955. For a 16-year-old boy out in the world alone for the first time, every day's an education in the hard work and boredom of migrant labor; every day teaches him something more about friendship, or hunger, or profanity, or lust--always lust. He learns how a poker game, or hitching a ride, can turn deadly. He discovers the secret sadness and generosity to be found on a lonely farm in the middle of nowhere. Then he joins up with a carnival and becomes a grunt, running a ride and shilling for the geek show. He's living the hard carny life and beginning to see the world through carny eyes. He's tough. Cynical. By the end of the summer he's pretty sure he knows it all. Until he meets Ruby.

Gary Paulsen

This collection will likely hook adults as much as young readers

When you grow up in a small town in the north woods, you have to make your own excitement. High spirits, idiocy, and showing off for the girls inspire Gary Paulsen and his friends to attempt: Shooting waterfalls in a barrel 
The first skateboarding 
Jumping three barrels like motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel-except they only have bikes 
Hangliding with an Army surplus target kite 
Bungee jumping 
Wrestling . . . a bear? 
 
Extreme sports lead to extreme fun in new tales from Gary's boyhood. !

How Angel Peterson Got His Name

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