When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (1999). Set in a small Texas town during the summer of 1971, this story is told by 13-year-old Toby, who spends the season learning how to observe, help, understand, and respect a visitor — a sideshow boy left behind by a traveling circus. The novel moves gently, with moments of humor and warmth, but it does not hide the quiet harshness of the world. Loss, abandonment, and unspoken fears exist at the edges, not yet fully understood by the children — or by the reader.