What a Cover!

 The Beet Fields:  Memories of a Sixteenth Summer isn't a typical teen book.  I sure did love this book though.  It is painful and gritty and I don't know what kind of reader it is for, but if you love Gary Paulsen, it is a must read.  It definitely isn't for tweens or younger teens, there is a lot of sexuality in it.  If you read about Mr. Paulsen's life you know that this book is autobiographical.  I wonder how much of it is true and how much of it is fiction.  It is seriously painful to read this book and think of all that "the boy," as he is called in the book, has gone through.  Paulsen's parents were serious alcoholics.  I can't imagine what that would be like.  I think that this review from Teenreads really does a nice job of summing it all up.