Sandy Tauber

Bigfoot and the Boy Sandy Tauber

Noah, a 13-year-old boy, rescues Fostic, a young Bigfoot, from the jaws of an old bear trap and they become unlikely friends. As they try to learn each other's language, both become increasingly alarmed as they realize that man has surrounded Fostic's shrinking homeland. Bigfoots must either leave to find a more remote area in which to live in peace or decide to assimilate with man. Not merely a tale of bigfoot meets man, "Bigfoot and the Boy" is a young adult coming-of-age story as Noah wrestles with the anxieties and inner conflicts of his teenage years. And yet he knows that his troubles don't come close to those that would face Fostic should Bigfoots decide to attempt to live with man. As Noah comes to recognize the similarities between how man would likely treat Bigfoots, and the way that Native Americans and Blacks had been treated, he begins to question the basic goodness and superiority of mankind and ponders the deeper questions of what it means to be civilized, what it means to be human.