Tom Slade Picks a Winner

Tom Slade, camp assistant at Temple Camp in the Adirondacks, faces a challenge that tests everything he believes about friendship. When Wilfred Cowell arrives at camp, he's not the typical eager Boy Scout - he's frail, anxious, and immediately becomes a target for the camp's bully. Tom must choose between the easy path of indifference and the harder one of standing up for someone who cannot stand up for himself. What follows is a story about the quiet courage it takes to be a real friend, and the way one person's kindness can transform a frightened boy into someone who belongs. Fitzhugh writes with genuine affection for his characters and an understanding that courage isn't the absence of fear but the choice to act despite it. The stakes are small but real - a boy's dignity, a friendship forged in difficult circumstances, and the question of what it really means to belong.