Farm Tough, by Patrick Scott

Rebel Without a Cause meets Huck Finn, shakes hands with The Haymeadow and runs into Lord of the Flies in this “coming of age” story set in Yuba City, California.

The narrator, now age 70+ and dying of cancer, looks back on his summer of 1955. A spoiled rich kid, Ryan was twelve years old when he’s sent to spend the summer with his grandparents while his parents sort out a divorce.

Once in Yuba City, Ryan soon meets meets a bunch of local guys with majorly limited vocabularies. (Someone didn’t bother to read our submission guidelines. More on that in a min.) The boys skinny-dip in the Feather River, pilfer railroad ties to build a raft, and jump off a bridge. Ryan tries so hard to fit in, he lies to his grandparents about an overnight at the river.

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