At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother's death and placed in a boy's boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains. Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can't help being drawn to Early, who won't believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear. But what they are searching for is sometimes different from what they find. They will meet truly strange characters, each of whom figures into the pi story Early weaves as they travel, while discovering things they never realized about themselves and others in their lives.
"Just the sort of book that saves lives by igniting a passion for reading." -James Patterson The Washington Post, January 1, 2013: "Clare Vanderpool deftly rows this complex, inventive novel -- her most recent since her Newbery-winning 'Moon Over Manifest' -- to a tender, surprising and wholly satisfying ending."
The Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2013: "An emotionally believable and moving work of magical realism."
The Boston Globe, June 22, 2013
"A beautifully written adventure."
The New York Times, January 13, 2013: "The hallmark of 'Navigating Early' is abundant adventure...The friendship between Jackie and Early and the Morton Hill Academy episodes overall have the flavor of Wes Anderson's delightful summer camp movie, 'Moonrise Kingdom.'"
Starred Review, School Library Journal, March 2013:
"Readers will find themselves richly rewarded by this satisfying tale."
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, November 19, 2012:
"This multilayered, intricately plotted story has a kaleidoscopic effect, blurring the lines between reality and imagination, coincidence and fate."
Starred Review, Booklist, December 15, 2012:
"Newbery Medal-winning author Vanderpool's sharp, honest narrative, sparkling with the stars of the night sky, pieces together an elaborate, layered plot with precision, weaving multiple threads into a careful, tidy conclusion perfectly suited for those, like Jack and Early, who want to believe."
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2012:
""Returning to themes she explored so affectingly in
Moon Over Manifest, Newbery Medalist Vanderpool delivers another winning picaresque about memories, personal journeys, interconnectedness--and the power of stories."
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 2013: "This story of a poignant friendship of two heartbroken boys shifts quickly among genres...moving into territory more often claimed by high fantasy quests, heroic epics, wilderness adventures, and even mysteries. The incorporation of these familiar tropes give the book broad and fascinating appeal, and those that trust Early--and Vanderpool--to lead them through the treacherous woods will be pondering and debating the surreal experience for some time to come."
The Horn Book, March/April 2013: "While the writing is as minutely observant as it was in the author's Newbery-winning debut,
Moon over Manifest, this book has a stronger trajectory, developed by the classic quest structure that emerges when Vanderpool sends the boys into the Maine wilderness."
