The Avocado Drive Zoo: At Home With My Family and the Creatures We've Loved [Hardcover]

Earl Hamner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

THE AVOCADO DRIVE ZOO is a warm and personal, yet humorous, recounting of how the members of the Hamner family have lived with and loved the animals in their lives. By the time they moved to Hollywood and settled into a lovely residence on Avocado Drive, their home was virtually a zoo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the creator and producer of the hit TV series The Waltons and Falcon Crest comes an amusing account of his family's involvement with animals. The story starts in Manhattan, where Hamner and his wife, Jane, owned two cocker spaniels, which were soon joined by a dozen box turtles picked up on a rural road in Virginia. When the family moved to their new home on Avocado Drive in the Hollywood Hills of California, the menagerie increased dramatically. Over the years there were dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, opossums (and, briefly, an alligator, soon given to the Los Angeles Zoo). Otherwise unflappable, Jane could not bear to turn any animal away. During a hot, dry spell she provided water and food for a pair of coyotes. Another time, she put out food for a mouse that appeared in the family's beach house. Hamner, however, confesses that he never liked spiders until he worked on the film script for Charlotte's Web. Enlivened with plenty of anecdotes about the author's early script-writing career and his brood's activities in California, this memoir provides a sweet, humorous take on family life.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

EARL HAMNER is best known as the creator and producer of the Emmy-winning series THE WALTONS. His best-selling books include SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN, THE HOMECOMING, and YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581820208
• ISBN-13: 978-1581820201
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book tells us what happen to Johnboy after he went to NY, May 2, 1999

By 

Dorothy Phillips ([e-mail]) (ONTARIO, CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Avocado Drive Zoo: At Home With My Family and the Creatures We've Loved (Hardcover)

Everyone who admires and loves Earl Hamner, will love this book. It is a real good insight to his life after he leaves the Mountain for New York City and then on to Hollywood California. Being an animal lover myself, I just love his stories about the different living animals that where in their lives. It starts with his meeting Jane and it is their love of animals from there on in. How they both taught their children the same love. Also He made the family of both seem so real I felt I knew them. The humor was quite effective and I found myself laughing out loud. Quite different from his other books. I know any fans of Earl Hamner will just adore this book. I am sure everyone will want to pass it on and after reading it, they will want to search him out and have there own copy signed by Earl. You can find him in Schuyler Virginia at the Museum for "The Waltons' Series" check the web site www.the-waltons.com Most Sincerely and with Love Dorothy Phillips

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A charming story of a family and their personal "Zoo", April 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Avocado Drive Zoo: At Home With My Family and the Creatures We've Loved (Hardcover)

With this book, Earl Hamner proves that he can write as entertainingly about his adult life as he has written in the past about his childhood. Hamner's life in Hollywood is a "howl" and I do mean "howl." Read it and you'll see!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining, and quite original!, April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Avocado Drive Zoo: At Home With My Family and the Creatures We've Loved (Hardcover)

Mr. Hamner writes about his family and their love of animals in a way that is entertaining and heartwarming. It is hard to imagine that the setting for this book is the great urban sprawl of Los Angeles. Mr. Hamners way with words is also a big plus. I hope that you look it up in your bookstore or library, as I believe you will enjoy reading "The Avocodo Drive Zoo."