Appleton Quarry/Appleton Crow

It is 1992, and twenty-year-old Justin Bench has arrived, recently and unexpectedly, to the tiny, fictional mid-valley town of Appleton. Here, in the sparsely-populated mountains of central Washington State, Justin's adoptive father has passed on, bequeathing him a small trust fund, and a caretaker's cabin in the wooded environs of the old abandoned Appleton Quarry. Though encumbered with an unspecified learning disability, Justin's indomitable good nature -- in concert with a solid gold work ethic -- has earned him the almost reverential trust and respect of the entire community; in particular, a cadre of outdoorsy, verbally competitive, soon-to-be tenth graders known collectively as The Scalawags.

Justin's idyllic lifestyle comes under siege when someone engages in an anonymous, steadily mounting crusade of harassment and hate against him. His high school friends are quick to come to the side of their comrade, but Justin is dead-set against any formal intervention from law enforcement authorities on behalf of his frightful problem.

Thrown into the mix is a seldom-seen, but essential (and sentient) crow, who possesses the incurable habit of "intervening" at the most necessary and opportunistic times. Crow provides a sly and subtle fantasy-fiction feel to a story about longing and belonging. About small towns, and small-town citizens who surmount generations of dead-end dreams and disappointments. About a clutch of youngsters who adjust, adapt and learn to rely on one another when confronted with a very grown up problem; who cultivate friendships enduring enough to muddle through it all, and beyond.