A great read for teenagers. Important morals are learned throughout the book such as parental neglect, friendship, responsibility, fitting in, masculinity and helplessness. However, the book may be difficult for children under 13 to understand. The setting is in 1960s and language can be confusing to you readers. Some concerns were violence (the book starts with an intense bloody dream scene, the boys use a gun, the boys are tied to a tree) sexual references (the counselor has a sex magazine collection) bad role models (under-age drinking/smoking, the councelor treats the boys badly, boys are teased, one boy steals and hot-wires a car) and language (frequent use of "d*mn, h*ll. One use of "b*tch" and several other derogatory terms. I had to read this book for school, 8th grade language arts, I found it interesting and started a lot of discussions. It teaches a good lesson and is helpful to young teenagers to understand why people do what they do.