The Goats

A boy and the girl have been chosen as ""the goats'' at summer camp. Stripped naked, they are marooned on Goat Island, as part of an annual prank played on campers who don't fit in. But the goats have much more spirit than their fellow campers expect, and they decide to disappear completelythey aren't going to go back to camp unless they absolutely have to. On the run, Howie and Laura meet many different peoplesome who help them, others who try to stop thembut they soon learn how very strong they are themselves, and they come to depend on their own resourcefulness and cunning to evade those who are trying to find them. But Howie and Laura know that they must, at some point, face the world they've left behind. Cole has written and illustrated many picture books (The Winter Wren, The Giant's Toe), but this is his first work for older readers. Written with the mastery and sureness of a seasoned novelist, it is a gripping, startling and thought-provoking story about children who find inner strength when they are pushed to the edge. Ages 8-12. (September)