The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer

by Gary Paulsen
PRMS hardcover, 160 pages

I had never seen this Gary Paulsen title before! I enjoyed it even though it doesn't flow as smoothly as some of his other stories. Paulsen shares his memories of this time in his life in a painfully honest manner. It makes me so sad for the childhood he never had. My favorite part was when he worked with the migrant laborers and felt connected to them. This book might appeal to some of the same kids who like Harris and Me, even though it isn't funny like that book.


Added 11/25/12:
Rather than create a new entry for this re-read, I decided to edit the old. This seems to me to be extremely autobiographical . . . but it's also very raw and personal. The narrator is describing events from the summer of when he was fifteen going on sixteen. Running away from home after his drunken mother makes a pass at him, working the beet fields with migrant workers, falling in love (but never actually talking to the object of his affection), getting ripped off by a deputy, joining a carnival . . . . this is for my older, more mature readers.