This was a tough review to write -- not because I didn't like the book, but because I COULDN'T KEEP MY HANDS ON THE DARN THING!

When the review copy of The Hero first arrived in the mail, my 13-year-old son pounced on it. "Cool, another book about a raft on a river," he said, then disappeared with it into the basement. When I asked him how he'd liked the book several days later, he said: "It was great!" When I asked him where it was, he said: "Uh, I think Patrick's reading it."

After Patrick [my 11-year-old] finished it, he passed it to his 9-year-old brother who only got through chapter 2 before my husband spied it on the dresser and hid it in his nightstand so that he could read it in his spare time (which he seemed to find in abundance over the next few days, especially, I might add, when he was *supposed* to be helping me clean out our closet. "Wow, they should make this book into a movie," he once surfaced long enough to say while I glared at him over an armload of DI-bound dress shirts.

When I finally laid hold of the book, I had to stash it under a stack of Good Housekeeping magazines whenever I wasn't reading it to keep it from the greedy paws of the remaining males in my family. But, alas, when I sat down to write the review this morning, the book had once again vanished. A thorough interrogation of all possible suspects revealed that my husband was the repeat offender. He had taken the book to church on Sunday to read to his class of deacons and had left it in his briefcase.

As you might have gathered, The Hero is a book that appeals to males. "Three boys. Two waterfalls. One raft. And a ride that will change their lives forever" reads the back cover. What testosterone-driven reader wouldn't be excited by that?

But The Hero is not just for boys. And it's not just an adventure story. It is a skillfully crafted, thoughtful, and often moving chronicle of a young boy's movement toward maturity. Throughout the course of the novel, 14-year-old Jamie comes to recognize the complex and often puzzling ambiguities of life. In this, The Hero is reminiscent of that other great "raft on a river" novel, Huckleberry Finn. The parallels are obvious -- the raft, the river, the journey, the themes of prejudice, community, and self-discovery.

Ron Woods, an Administrative Assistant to the Dean of the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University, is a very able writer. Although The Hero is his first novel, he handles such elements as dialogue, character development, foreshadowing, and pacing with the ease and confidence of a seasoned craftsman. His language is fresh and lively -- and very much in keeping with the tone of the novel:

But the thought of having to deal with Arlie Leeper or his fence -- I'd rather shampoo a porcupine," says Jamie at one point. And later, Jamie comments: "Right then, I was sure you could've hid Arlie's brain in a gnat's hind end with room to spare.

The setting of The Hero is the small community of Union on the Payette River in Idaho. It is the summer of 1957, and Jamie and his older cousin, Jerry, are busy building a raft. The last thing they want is to have their dweeby neighbor, Dennis, hanging around. But Jamie's parents insist that the boys include Dennis, and they finally consent to let him hold the rope as they take the raft out on the river. What happens next will test the physical, mental, and moral strength of all three boys in ways they could never have imagined.

The Hero is an interesting blend of hair-raising suspense and a sort of quiet, philosophical introspection. In the hands of Ron Woods, it's a combination that works.

My one complaint about the novel is that the ending seemed contrived to me. Let me explain. I almost got the feeling while reading the book that the story had originally gone one direction and then had later been changed, perhaps at the urging of an editor, and most certainly so that it would seem less manipulative, less moralistic, less predictable. The problem is, the very effort to avoid predictability produced, in my opinion, an ending that seems somewhat forced and not entirely fulfilling. My 13-year-old son's comment was: "I really, really liked the book -- but I wish it would have ended this way." I agree. The other ending would have been much more satisfying and, I believe, ultimately moving for the book's targeted audience (young readers, particularly, young male readers).

But the ending notwithstanding, The Hero is a powerful, finely crafted story. Should you read it? Absolutely. Just keep your hands off my copy!