Whenever a prank is pulled there is a victim. Sometimes the consequences of the prank falls far from the expected results. What may seem harmless fun to the perpetrator(s) can cause emotional, mental, and physical harm to The Goats.
Children can be cruel. Especially to those that they believe are different from them. A child that wears glasses, is overweight, or shy will be targeted sooner or later by a bully. When a group of children band together against a single target things can get pushed out of control with them trying to outdo each other.
At a camp an old tradition, that has been banned, is resurrected. The boys chose the male goat. The girls chose their female goat. The Goats are a boy and a girl singled out to be stripped and left on an island. A scrawny, intelligent boy with glasses convinces the female goat to hang on to a log while he swims them back to shore. The shy, small for her size girl that wears glasses overcomes the horror of being naked and does her part in getting back to safety. The boy and girl band together to get through the next few days until the girl's mother arrives to take her home. Instead of returning to the camp The Goats go on the run. They steal, yet write down what they take so it can eventually be replaced. Few adults are concerned. They believe the boy and the girl will turn up apologizing for worrying them. The mother of the girl and one camp counselor search frantically for them, but the boy and the girl have found inner strengths that allow them to stay on the run.
The Thoughts
Are you wondering why I didn't give the boy and the girl names? That is because Brock Cole didn't give them names until almost two-thirds of the way through the book. I'm not sure if he was trying to make a generic boy and girl so kids everywhere could relate to them. Whatever his intentions, it left me with the feeling he didn't care enough about the boy and the girl to give them names. For me, he was another adult that wasn't too worried about the outcome of the children. Of course as the author he knew what the outcome was.
Howie and Laura, The Goats, went from shy, nerdy kids to street-wise, beautiful children in the span of a few days. Their miraculous transformation was unbelievable. Two book smart children suddenly become streetwise and pull off theft, breaking and entering, and conning a manager of a hotel. Through out the whole book I kept wondering why they didn't go back to camp and let one of the adults there know what happened. Laurie's mother admitted to not appreciating her daughter until her disappearance. Howie's parents were archaeologists on a dig in another country. I never did learn if they even found out he was missing. The one police officer they did have contact with was outrageous. He identified himself verbally, loaded them in his truck, and later locked them in the truck (the inside locks were removed). The whole story seemed unnecessary.
While this book is aimed at pre-teens and teens, as an adult I am still trying to comprehend the message that it is better to run than trust any adult authority that was in this book. Camp counselors, police, and others were available to the children, yet they kept running. Is that a message we want sent to our children? We all know "stranger danger", but this goes beyond that.
This book can be found on the top 100 most frequently challenged (banned) books. I believe the use of the term The Goats and the bullying of two children by others are some of the reasons it is challenged. Stealing, nudity, and lack of concern by adults in position of authority could be other banning instigators. I prefer to think it was challenged due to a bad storyline, lack of connecting the reader to the children, and general unbelievability.
For its 15th anniversary, The Goats is reissued in a new paperback edition featuring Cole s original hardcover jacket art and illustrations. The boy a...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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