The mountain lion - Jean Stafford

Eight-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother Ralphare inseparable, in league with each other against thestodgy and stupid routines of school and daily life;against their prim mother and prissy older sisters; againstthe world of authority and perhaps the world itself. Onesummer they are sent from the genteel Los Angeles suburbthat is their home to backcountry Colorado, wheretheir uncle Claude has a ranch. There the children encounteran enchanting new world-savage, direct, beautiful,untamed-to which, over the next few years, they willreturn regularly, enjoying a delicious double life. And yetat the same time this other sphere, about which they areboth so passionate, threatens to come between their passionateattachment to each other. Molly dreams of growingup to be a writer, yet clings ever more fiercely to the specialworld of childhood. Ralph for his part feels the growingchallenge, and appeal, of impending manhood. Youthand innocence are hurtling toward a devastating end.