Bless the Beasts & Children

First three chapters talk about the main character being a buffalo and getting shot in head by his mom. It also talks about suicide and has a lot of cuss words. There is also a part in the 3rd chapter talking about murdering the family pets and describing that the baby bunny was like his baby brother so he beat it to death with a branding iron also he ripped off the limbs of a dog and squished a poor toad.

I love this book, but the content is disturbing including bullying, violence, swearing, and disturbing content in general. I suggest you read it, but not under teens.

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.