First published 2013
Jack Baker arrives at a Maine boarding school after losing his mother. The Kansas boy feels displaced in this new world. He meets Early Auden, an unusual student who interprets the digits of pi as narrative and saves newspaper articles about a massive black bear roaming the mountains. Early refuses to accept the official stories about local legends. He questions what happened to The Fish, a school hero who disappeared during the war. He doubts the accepted facts about the Great Appalachian Bear and Timber Rattlesnakes. When the two boys find themselves alone at the school, they set out on the Appalachian Trail. They seek the great black bear that Early has tracked through news clippings. Along their journey, they encounter peculiar individuals who become part of Early's ongoing pi narrative. The quest reveals truths about themselves and the people in their lives that neither boy expected to discover.
Genres: fiction, adventure, coming-of-age, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family, quest
Setting: Appalachian Trail, Maine, United States
Period: 20th-century
320 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press