Fifteen-year-old James has just discovered the magnificence of nature—but can he protect it from the phoniness of the material world? When his academic-minded parents decide to forsake civilization for a wilderness summer in the Sierra Nevada mountains, James Fielding figures he'll be counting the minutes until it's over. But in the woods one day, he comes upon a magnificent deer and becomes fascinated by its majesty and beauty. Then he meets two very different girls. Thirteen-year-old Griffin Donahue is "pure and free and beautiful." Diane Jarrett is a tanned, "hot-pink-bikinied" goddess. Griffin is at one with nature. Diane is slumming at the nearby exclusive camp, with its decadent luxury and A-list guests. When these two worlds collide, threatening the existence of the stag, James embarks on a quest to find a friend who's gone missing—and to save a life. This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.