Kit's Wliderness / David Almond / 229 pages

Good can come from bad...or...there is good in everyone, are perhaps the predominant themes in Kit's Wilderness.  Kit joins a gang of kids led by the incorrigible John Askew, a ruffian and a bully, who plays a game called death in the abandoned coal mine pit in Stoneygate.  The wilderness, an empty space between the houses and the river, has a haunted eerie air to it and is typically avoided.  Kit descends into the pit, plays the game, and comes out changed.  He begins writing a story based on a cave family whose baby was snatched by a bear.  The young son endures many hardships to rescue the baby and reunite the family.  Kit relates the tale to John Askew.  Does the telling changes the hardened bully?