Bless the Beasts and Children (by Glendon Swarthout)

John Cotton finds himself the leader of a group of six boys who can't fit into their western summer camp. He awakens from a terrible dream to find that the youngest boy has left the cabin. The boys know where he has gone. It's clear that all have witnessed a terrible event that day. They decide to break out of camp to accomplish some goal. They steal horses, ride to town, then steal a car. They make their way 100 miles to a buffalo reserve. Readers then learn that they were forced to watch a slaughter of buffalo.

The boys have decided to free remainder of the herd, but they can't do it without getting caught. The decision they make changes their lives. The book alternates between scenes from the boys' adventure and from their difficult home lives.

This much-loved novel of teenage rebellion has become one of the classics of young-adult literature. Written as a rebuttal to William Golding's Lord of the Flies, according to the author's son in his introduction, this is a disturbing but ultimately uplifting book. The boys in this book don't degenerate into beasts, as in Lord of the Flies. Instead, they liberate the beasts and themselves, though their leader sacrifices himself to accomplish that goal.

Glendon Swarthout's often-poetic prose elevates the kids' quest into an epic, and his descriptions of the boys and their trials become almost hypnotic. Some see it as a Christian allegory. However, most teens reading for enjoyment will want to skip the lengthy reader's supplement in the back of the book, which provides school-like discussion questions. Readers interested primarily in literary quality may find the supplement useful.