Boneyard

Jake Yoder, a precocious boy caught between Amish culture and the modern world, sits in his sixth-grade classroom writing stories at the behest of a stern but charismatic teacher. His stories feature children who are crushed, imprisoned, and distorted, yet flailing around with a kind of bedazzled awe, trying to find their way out. His characters traverse South American plains, fenced-in farms, exotic cities; find themselves in mental institutions, one-room schoolhouses, prisons; his sentenc...