Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a terrific book about a group of British children who are left isolated on an island, and eventually begin to kill each other as they lose their sanity. The book not only tells an exciting adventure story, though, it also describes on a deeper level, the thin line between civility and sanity, and violent insanity.

The book opens with a group of children choosing a leader among themselves and deciding on a group of laws to live by. When one of the older children named Jack, is not chosen leader, he begins his own rebellion and attracts many fellow rebels. As the story develops, Jack and his band begin to disobey the rules, and eventually form a completely separate community. As the two commun-ities develop, Jack's group becomes more uncivilized, and eventually his group murders a member of the other group out of blind hate and insanity.

Through this story of innocent young children who become dangerous, Golding teaches the lesson that even young people, however innocent, can become insane as a result of a lack of authority, government, and civilized neighbors to guide them.