A survival story in the manner of earlier Paulsen novels such as Hatchet (Bradbury, 1987) and Dogsong (Bradbury, 1985), The Haymeadow is set in a four-square mile valley high in the Wyoming mountains where the Barron's summer their herd of six thousand sheep. When the hired hand is unable to take the herd up as usual, fourteen-year-old John Barron is given the responsibility, with the help of two horses and four dogs. John can't comprehend how he will survive the summer alone with the animals in the isolated valley, and it soon seems that he is making more mistakes than he thought possible as he experiences river flooding and coyote attacks. In some ways, though, his physical isolation doesn't seem much different from what he feels at the ranch from his reticent father. While John discovers how to handle his responsibility with the herd, he also learns about his father during a late season visit. (Age 12 and older)

Fourteen-year-old John Barron is asked, like his father and grandfather before him, to spend the summer taking care of their sheep in the haymeadow. Six thousand sheep. John will be alone, except for two horses, four dogs, and all those sheep.



John doesn't feel up to the task, but he hopes that if he can accomplish it, he will finally please his father. But John finds that the adage "things just to sheep" is true when the river floods, coyotes attack, and one dog's feet get cut. Through it all he must rely on his own resourcefulness, ingenuity, and talents to survive this summer in the haymeadow.