From the Back Cover:
We've all come in contact with a Box Canyon Boys Camp ("Send Us a Boy--We'll Send You a Cowboy"). It's really not so very unlike our society today, complete with thinning the herd.
Cotton's cabin shelters the camp failures:
Cotton, the son of a three-times-married mother, wanting a father more than anything else, and ending up being a father to the other five misfits who are labeled the Bedwetters by their Box Canyon "compatriots."
Teft, the rebel against authority of any kind, whose car-stealing ability makes The Expedition possible.
Goodenow, the victim of an oedipus complex. It takes the spectacle of the buffalo killing area to make an impression that countless psychiatrists and schools for disturbed children have been unable to make.
Shecker, son of a famous comedian, who has memorized his father's routines as a defense against tough situations.
Lally 1 and Lally 2, brothers made arch enemies in the attempt to gain their parents' attention. This is difficult, because mom and dad are usually in some exotic vacation place celebrating a reconcilation after discontinuing their annual divorce proceedings.
Bless the Beasts & Children is a story with tenderness and savagery, ending with an impact that stuns.
From the Inside Flap:
"Send Us a Boy -- We'll Send You a Cowboy!" is the slogan of the Box Canyon Boys Camp. But for the nail biters, thumb suckers, and teeth grinders--the cast-away offspring of parents who are busy traveling, being divorced, remarrying, and garnering fortunes--it's just another place to face rejection. Until Cotton.
Cotton pulls them together. In a hot-wired pickup, he leads "the Bedwetters" on a fantastic mission to to save a herd of buffalo--and in the process, to save themselves. But as the raw red Arizona sun rises, they will discover the cost of their one grand moment of glory....
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