the strangest of boys

I just read Navigating Early by Claire Vanderpool. I picked it up because I liked Moon Over Manifest, Claire Vanderpool's Newbery Medal novel... but I mostly picked it up because another blog compared Navigating Early to A Prayer For Owen Meany, and I loved Owen Meany!

It's historical fiction, at the end of World War II; Jack Baker's mother has passed away.

Jack is a 13 year old boy from Kansas who is uprooted to a boarding school in Maine. At school, Jack meets Early Auden, the strangest of boys. Jack and Early embark on an adventure down the Kennebec River... and it's quite an adventure. Their quest includes pirates, a great white whale, a lost hero, a secret cave, treasure, a great bear, a hundred-year-old woman, and a timber rattlesnake... to name just a few.

The story is woven together over the ongoing story of the never ending number pi, 3.14159...

Early Auden is a special character; he will stay with you long after you finish the book... just like Owen Meany :)