Bringing Me Back

Twelve-year-old Noah lives with his mother's boyfriend while his mom serves a six-month jail sentence. He suspects the man is only counting down until Noah is sent away. At school, Noah is blamed by almost everyone, including his former best friend, for the cancellation of the football program after the previous season. Near the woods behind his school, he spots a young bear with her head caught in a bucket, the kind used in a fundraiser to save the team. The bear grows thinner and weaker each day, yet she keeps running from anyone who approaches, and she is always alone. Noah shrugs off the teasing and his mother's calls from jail, but he cannot walk away from the bear, even though the adults around him have given up on her. He decides to free her, which forces him to confront his past and his present. The story asks whether saving the bear might also save him.