Dancing Carl — Gary Paulsen

Once in a lifetime someone truly out of the ordinary comes along -- and your world will never be the same.

He appeared with the hockey season in 1958, and that winter dancing Carl was king of the rinks. Some said he looked like a drunk and a bum in his beat-up flight jacket -- some even said Carl had escaped from a mental institution -- but no one could miss the power Carl possessed. Marsh and Willy watched him all winter long -- saw into his power, saw it nearly kill him. Then, when Miss Helen appeared, Carl began to recover his mesmerizing strength, and the whole town gathered to watch as his dance really began.