Bayou Boy

About the Book

Jean LeBlanc had lived in the Louisiana swamp country all his fourteen years. He loved the swamp, just as his father did. Jean had never gone to school, and neither had his father, but Papa taught him what a man needed to know in order to live in the swamp. Jean could shoot alligators, trap muskrats, and catch fish almost as well as any grown man in the bayou.

But things were changing. Big caterpillar tractors were shoving up the black earth and filling the swampland with noise and blue diesel smoke. The state of Louisiana was building a road through the swamp, and the animals were moving farther into the wilds. A man couldn't make a living by hunting and trapping. Papa had to go to work on the offshore oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico, and Jean had to look after his mother and sister while Papa was gone.

Taking his father's place proved to be more difficult and dangerous than Jean had imagined. But it was a maturing experience, and it helped Jean to accept the fact that nothing stays the same. Both he and Papa had come to realize that the old way of life was gone, and that for Jean, the new life must include school.

About the Author

George Harmon Smith is the author of other children and Young Adult novels, such asBayou Boy and Wolf Dog. George has been a speaker at numerous schools and universities, sometimes speaking to hundreds, even thousands, of students at one time. He is a certified educational consultant, and helped write the guidelines for the revamping of the Arkansas School System. He is the husband of Willa Horne Smith. They have five children, two of whom have their father~{!/~}s interest for writing.