The Good Oak

Growing up is never easy, but thirteen-year-old Matt Echbar is finding it particularly difficult. His widowed father is too busy for him, and his grandfather is an embarrassment, an unschooled Basque shepherd whose language and customs are completely alien to Matt's all-American lifestyle. Matt is in serious trouble at school, and his father is threatening to move them back to the grandfather's farm to help the old man. Things only get worse when his grandfather steals a flock of sheep and dragoons Matt into helping him drive them to a secret camp high in the Arizona mountains.
As Matt and his aitatxi, accompanied by their two faithful sheepdogs, drive the flock across the burgeoning suburbs of Phoenix and into the remote mountains, the boy learns the ancient skills of the sheepherder and discovers the unexpected wisdom that has given his Old Country grandfather the strength and patience of a sturdy oak. By the time the journey reaches its fateful conclusion, Matt has developed a new bond with the old man along with a new confidence in himself. Moreover, he has learned that becoming an adult includes accepting one's heritage.
This is a novel about the precarious borderlands between childhood and manhood, between an American and an ethnic identity. Matt's adventure as an apprentice sheepherder is a tale about the angst and frustration of growing up, and the pride that comes from surviving hard work and honoring the culture of one's forebears.