The Tent

by Gary Paulsen
PRMS hardcover 86 pages
genre: YA fiction (historical?)

This is super short, with only 86 pages and lots of white space. As I've been weeding my collection, it's so hard for me to get rid of books that seem interesting and/or were written by authors I admire. This one had lots of stereotypes (preachers with big hair, phony messages, etc.) but a wonderful change of heart that surprised and delighted me.

Basically, a teenager named Steve and his dad Corey are dirt poor with tough prospects. Corey decides to become a traveling preacher and get rich. Steve thinks he's kidding but goes along with it. They end up becoming very successful financially, while pushing aside their reservations about the right or wrong of what they're doing.

Chapter headings:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also
Ye cannot serve God and mammon (money)
A man's life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses
Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction
Take heed and beware of covetousness (greed)
Watch and pray that you fall not into temptation
A corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many
And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in choke the Word

pages 68/69 have Steven contemplating their wealth and standard of living. "Was it bad, he thought, to tell people about God and get money for it?" "And his objections went." "And he changed." The transition from a kid with a conscience to a kid who's all about what he can get . . . was disheartening.

pages 78-84 Corey and Steven catch one another's eyes in the tent. "The same look. The edge, the hard cut of guilt, of doubt . . . " I love how the story changes here! What a lovely surprise ending.