Preachers's Boy Author:Katherine Paterson In 1899, ten-year-old Robbie, son of a preacher in a small Vermont town, gets himself into all kinds of trouble when he decides to give up being Christian in order to make the most of his life before the end of the world. — If I stayed away long enough, everyone would forget how mad they were at me and take to fretting over my welfare. All I had ... more »to do was stay gone overnight, or at the most a couple of nights, and the whole town would organize a search. Even the Westons would forget how awful I had been and wonder if I was dead or lying out in the woods, calling faintly for help which never came.
Maybe, if I could stay out of sight long enough, they'd have a funeral for me, like they did for Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I'd like that. I'd like it even better if I could peek in on the proceedings and hear people say what a good fellow I was--just a little mischievous, as befitting a red-blooded American boy--but in reality a prince of a fellow, a credit, all things considered, to his grieving parents.« less