BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN - Glendon Swarthout

Enriched with detailed notes and commentary, Glendon Swarthout’s classic tale of adolescent "misfits" at a boy’s camp on a mission to save themselves.
The neglected attendees of the Box Canyon Boys Camp find their lives turned around by Cotton, who, in a hot-wired pickup, challenges them to join efforts to save a herd of buffalo and rediscover themselves in the process.

Turned into a motion picture by director Stanley Kramer in 1972 with a well-known music soundtrack (theme for The Young and the Restless soap opera on CBS) and the Carpenters' Oscar nominated theme song.