The Beet Fields
The Beet Fields
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Summary
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; 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.
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The Beet Fields by Gary 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.
A masterly piece of storytelling -- Jan Mark * Carousel *
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 pheasantsBut it works -- Eileen Armstrong * The School Librarian *
Exceptional and so heartbreakingly real * Booklist *
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 * Bulletin *
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 pheasantsBut it works -- Eileen Armstrong * The School Librarian *
Exceptional and so heartbreakingly real * Booklist *
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 * Bulletin *
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.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780099439653 |
| ISBN 10 | 0099439654 |
| Title | The Beet Fields |
| Author | Gary Paulsen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Penguin Random House Children's UK |
| Year published | 2002-09-05 |
| Number of pages | 176 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |