Navigating Early

After his mother's death at the end
of World War II, Jack Baker is sud-
denly uprooted from his home in Kansas
and placed in a boys' boarding school in
Maine. There he meets Early Auden, the
strangest of boys, who reads the number
pi as an unending story and collects clip-
pings about sightings of a black bear in the
nearby mountains.
Feeling lost and adrift, Jack can't help
being drawn to Early, who refuses to be-
lieve what everyone accepts to be the truth
about the great Appalachian bear, timber
rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero
known as the Fish, who was lost in the war.
When Jack and Early find themselves
alone at school, they set out for the Appa-
lachian Trail on a quest for the great black
bear. Along the way, they meet some truly
strange characters, several of them danger-
ous, all lost in some way, and each a part of
the pi story Early continues to reveal.
Jack's ability to be a steadfast friend to
Early will be tested as the boys discover
things they never knew about themselves
and others.
Newbery Medal-winning author Clare
Vanderpool's classic storytelling style will
challenge and astound readers as they nav-
igate mysterious and uncharted lands.