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 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
The Goats
- By Brock Cole
- Genre: Friendship
Common Sense Media says
Camp tale gives readers a lot to think about.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that, as part of a cruel joke, two young teens are stranded on an island together without any way to get back to camp -- and without any clothes. But even though they're naked, there's no hanky-panky; instead, the mortified outcasts work together to survive the experience and get revenge on the bullies who tried to humiliate them.
What's the story?
Two social outcasts at summer camp, Howie and Laura, are stripped and marooned by their campmates on an island in the lake. Possessed of intelligence and determination the other kids knew nothing about, they decide to get even by simply disappearing.
Through the difficult process of getting off the island, getting clothes, and surviving while avoiding the widespread search that is made for them by a camp more afraid of lawsuits than concerned about the cruelty practiced by its residents, they gradually and tentatively form an emotional bond that becomes the one thing they can rely on as the whole world seems to conspire against them.
Is it any good?
THE GOATS made quite an impression when it first came out in 1987. It takes place in the children's fiction favorite locale to examine the cruelty of mankind: summer camp. (In fact, it has the kind of grit shown in another well-known cruelty-in-camp novel, "Bless the Beasts and Children.") But what sets it apart from others in its genre is the careful tenderness of the relationship between Howie and Laura, a deeply emotional relationship that never becomes sexual. It's finally that bond, portrayed with great delicacy and beauty by the author, that becomes the most meaningful part of their harrowing experience.
Some young readers are frustrated by the ambiguous ending, even as they revel in the children's ongoing defiance of a hostile world. Unlike many survival stories, the main characters are not lost in a wilderness but are eking out their hunted existence at the edges of civilization, though Howie is mightily tempted to try to disappear into the woods and never be found. With glancing commentaries on the many and varied relationships between and among children and adults, the author gives readers much to ponder and discuss.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the emotional and physical effects of bullying and the human tendency to single out those who are "different." Why have Howie and Laura been labeled social outcasts? Do they accept these labels or reject them? By the end of the story, have Howie and Laura become different people? How are they different?
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AGE
Not appropriate.
My 10 year-old granddaughter read this! She loved it and recommended I read it. I was appalled at the language I found in this book. God did not put me on this Earth to stand by when my granddaughter reads dirty novels! It makes me sick to think that some parents nowadays actually value their child's happiness in place of keeping them away from fowl language! Children should not be allowed to read this book! Not only does this book make multiple crude references to that which God does not want me to speak of, but it portrays running away from summer camp as a good thing!
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AGE
My Thoughts on The Goats.
I thought this book was very intriguing. A story about a boy and a girl, marooned on an island in the middle of a lake. That just captures the imagination right there. The nudity in the beginning will capture any perverse teenagers mind, and may even have them hooked on the book for a while.
Now, the nudity for me, I didn't even get phased by it. I've been around way too many things for this to bother me, so I was alright with it. I'm sure parents would think that this is soemthing wrong or unright, but if a child is to learn about the ways that most people act, tehn they must either read about it, or figure it out the hard way, by observation. A parent can teach a child, or he can figure it out by himself, and possibly go into the wrong direction with it.
The alcohol is not a prblem. I myself have never drunk alcohol, nor will I until it is legal for me to. Any sexual content was a little distracting to me, but if I were basically stripped naked and the only thing I could grab to cover me was a shirt that has some pretty graphic content, I think we all know which I'd choose. Of course, I would try to get rid of it as soon as possible, but there's nothing I'd be able to do at that point.
...That's about it. This is my first review on any book online. I thought the book had a beautiful storyline, showing the affection of a boy to a girl, without the whole use of sexual fission to completely destroy the beauty of it.
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AGE
brutal, tender, beautiful
I thought that this book was beautiful. The kids are young enough and innocent enough that sex is not an issue, there are a couple of d-words, but there is a lot of love. (I only mention the sex and language because this site seems concerned about these issues.) Two sensitive kids react to the brutality of hazing, by running, and end up clinging to each other in the most heartwarming way. I loved it. Exciting, deep, and powerful.
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AGE
i liked this book. i did not think it was that bad even now.ya there is kids striped and all of that but its still good.
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AGE
Not really badly written, but certainly nothing to praise a ton.
I am in an advanced program at school, and for a school assignment I read The Goats. It wasn't that bad a book to be perfectly frank, but it was certainly not good. Laura, the girl who is abandoned on Goat Island without her clothes, is at the beginning a good enough character with some fight in her. Characters are supposed to grow in books, but in The Goats Laura especially shrinks. She and Howie steal, lie, and partake in embezzlement. With a twelfth grade reading level, I was disappointed in Brock Cole's novel. Though The Goats caught and held my attention, I was not sad to finish the book as I often am with books I enjoyed reading. At the risk of getting a lot of people to read this book, I was unfortunately reminded of Stephanie Meyer's book series Twilight.
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AGE
great
this book is veeerrrrrryyyyyy gggggggggoooooooooooooooooooooooooodddddddddddddddddddd<3
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| Author: | Brock Cole |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Friendship |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date: | March 13, 2005 |
| Number of pages: | 192 |
| Paperback price: | $5.95 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 10 - 14 |
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