After tumbling off the back of a wagon, Jip was brought to the town poor farm. He has lived there ever since, content to do chores and tend animals--until the day the lunatic comes.

This is what it says on the back: After tumbling off the back of a wagon, Jip was brought to the town poor farm. He has lived there ever since, content to do chores and tend animals-until the day the lunitic comes. Caged like an animal, Put seems terrifying and less than human. But as the weeks pass, Jip sees Put as the wise man he truly is. And, when a menacing stranger comes to town, claiming to have been sent by Jip`s grieving father, Jip turns to his new friend to make sense of it all. With Put`s help, can Jip solve the riddle of his past?
Thanks

Katherine Paterson is one of our finest young people's authors. Don't look for happy solutions and easy to cope with stories. In this multiple award winning story about man's inhumanity to man the many facets are woven together into a story that will grab your attention and lead you into situations that are surprising but very much a part of the story. If you get it for your young person be sure to read it for yourself or you'll miss out on a reading treat. If I could give this book 6 stars I would.

A good mystery for kids.

Publishers Weekly
Abandoned as an infant, Jip West accepts his grim fate on a Vermont poor farm without question until a series of disturbing events changes his beliefs about himself and the people around him. The turning point occurs when, in the year 1855, Jip (who has a gift for "handling beasts and residents") becomes caretaker of a lunatic brought to the farm. The boy's growing friendship with the mysterious, moody man called Put coincides with Jip's discovery that his mother was a runaway slave. Tension mounts when Jip's biological father, the master of a Southern plantation, arrives to retrieve his "property." Like Paterson's Newbery-winning Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved, this historically accurate story is full of revelations and surprises, one of which is the return appearance of the heroine of Lyddie. While Jip's concerns provide insight into 19th-century society, his yearnings for freedom and knowledge are timeless. The taut, extremely readable narrative and its tender depictions of friendship and loyalty provide first-rate entertainment. Ages 10-14. (Oct.)

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