The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer

by Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

For a 16-year-old boy out in the world alone for the first time, every day's an education in the hard work and boredom of migrant labor; every day teaches him something more about friendship, or... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385326475
• ISBN13: 9780385326476
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Another great paulson book!

I really liked this book. Despite some more adult conten that, no, would not be apropriate for even i think 13 and/or 14 year olds, for the appropriate age group it is a great read! I have been through so many paulson books I can barely remember them all, but it still amazes me that gary can write on so many subjects. A breakaway from the usual adventure outdoors books, and even the indian and american historical books, this book still shows off paulson's love an talent for drawing in all kinds of people. This is not just a book for tean-age boys, though if you refuse to read anything else read this. The struggles "the boy" goes through are very real and very interesting. His freindship with the mexicans helps to show that when in need and in the real world diversity does not matter, and his latching onto carneys is a great turn of events. This book shows the value of hard work and is of course a coming of age book, but if anything it is definately a paulson book and i thouroughly enjoyed it!

The Beet Fields

I personally don't read books that often, but I needed a books for a class project,so I chose this one. I was surprised because this book is really good. I would recommend it to anyone that just wants something to read. There are many interesting facts that the author portrays in the book. This book understands some of the different things a young adult may go through in life. The author did a very good job on writing this book.

The Best One Yet

This is Gary Paulsen best book yet. His images are spectacular, and make the words turn into pictures in my mind. The action packed scenes kept me interested and wanting to read more. The plot is outstanding, and Paulsen's writing makes it that much better. The book takes you through the summer of a sixteen year-old runaway, not only physically, but mentally. He shows what he is thinking. It is a very well written book, and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to read a great book.

The Beet Fields is truly memorable

Paulsen's The Beet Fields does indeed evoke Hemingway in its spare, evocative prose. I have been a bit underwhelmed by some of Paulsen's recent fiction for young adults and was pleasantly surprised to read such a superb memoir. Yes, I did buy it for the young adult collection of my library and am puzzled by another reviewer's comment that it was "inappropriate" for her library. It is indeed unflinching in its look at Paulsen's often brutal childhood experiences, but that makes it all the more memorable.

A memorable memoir

Gary Paulsen's latest installment in his collection of memoirs is a glimpse into his sixteenth summer, when he left his drunken parents to pursue life on his own. He takes work as a laborer in the beet fields, where he befriends Mexican workers and learns to hunt pigeons with his bare hands, and later does farm work, joins the crew of a traveling carnival, and learns about lust and love from an older, much more experienced woman.While this isn't a book for younger readers, it will most definitely find an audience with teenagers who are familiar with Paulsen's writing and yearn to know more about his hardships and adventures when he was their age. Readers who enjoyed Hatchet and its sequels will find that the details of Brian's survival in the wilderness find an equally appealing match in the stories of Paulsen's own survival on the road in The Beet Fields.