Up a Tree

Brock (Cross Dog Blues) spins an enjoyable if occasionally nonsensical madcap adventure of two preteen boys zipping around the country. Twelve year-old Ruby Heckler and his best friend, Quinn Hennessey, are constantly causing mischief in their Adirondack hometown of Hackers Loon, which has become divided over the sprawling Gennelich timber company’s labor practices. The company’s scion blows up a church, hoping to unite the town by blaming the blast on terrorists, and Ruby narrowly escapes the explosion. Realizing everyone assumes he died in the blast, including Miss Jane, the woman who raised him from infancy after his parents’ deaths, he decides to go on the run. He heads downstate by bus, meeting a homeless lawyer who lost her job after getting cancer, which was caused by Gennelich pollution in her hometown. Out of ideas on how to keep moving, Ruby calls Quinn, who joins him in Hoboken, N.J. They hitchhike west and end up on a ranch in Wyoming. Lodgepole, the menacing ringleader of the ranch’s hodgepodge crew, puts the boys to work. Stories of Lodgepole’s eccentric largesse impress the boys, but when his true intentions become known, Ruby rethinks his dreams of adventure. There’s a zany wit, though there are a few too many contrivances in the wooly plot. It doesn’t all hang together, but there’s never a dull moment. (Self-published)