The author recalls his experiences as a migrant laborer and carnival worker after he ran away from home at age sixteen.

"Deep in the woods, in a rustic cabin, lives an old man and the boy he's raised as his own. This sage old man has taught the boy the power of nature and how to live in it, and more importantly, to respect it. In Fishbone's Song, this boy reminisces about the magic of the man who raised him and the tales that he used to tell--all true, but different each time."--

Eleven-year-old Eldon, growing up on a northern Minnesota farm describes the scenes around him and recounts his old Norwegian uncle's tales of an almost mythological logging past.

Ben and his twin classmates, Charlotte and Jacob, are missing a school field trip so Ben's father takes them, his new apprentice Brig, and the dogs on an adventure during which Ben manages to try out for a hockey academy against his parents' wishes and the twins turn the road trip into a learning experience.

In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild. Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured...