Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like a man. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and he is captured by Pawnees. It will take wild horses, hostile tribes, and a mysterious one-armed man named Mr. Grimes to help Francis become the man who will be called Mr. Tucket.

Gary Paulsen's gritty novel is a compelling coming-of-age frontier survival story told by a master storyteller.

From the dust jacket