Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood [Paperback]

Willie Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood is a novel for young readers about a boy's adventures growing up in post-WWII Mississippi. Author Willie Morris, then editor of Harper's Magazine in New York, wrote Good Old Boy when his son David, age ten, asked, What was it like to grow up in the South? Morris s response turned into a timeless story of growing up in a small Southern town, Yazoo City in the early 1950s, roaming the town with his friends and playing practical jokes and having adventures. Good Old Boy is supplemental reading at many schools for sixth through ninth grade.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Willie Morris (1934-1999) grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi, attended the University of Texas, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England and was editor in chief of Harper's Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 143 pages
• Publisher: Yoknapatawpha Press (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916242684
• ISBN-13: 978-0916242688
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, nostalgic and scary, June 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood (Paperback)

Though young readers won't recognize Morris as a writer, this story of his youth is wonderful.It starts with a witch, moves on to sports- his dog is on the team and then goes to more mayhem with haunted houses and robbers. There are wonderful characters like Bubba- a modern day Huckelberry Finn and Rivers Applewhite- the only girl who hangs with the boys. there are pranks- like tricking the boys from the next town with twins running a race. Most of all its a look at a time when people listened to baseball games on the radio and had time to explore the woods rather than cyberworlds.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball, Football and the Yazoo City Witch, June 14, 2002

By 

Ramona Honan "reviews-by-melva" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood (Paperback)

This was a great memoir about a "typical" southern boy's childhood. I wish Willie Morris had not died so young because I found his work so enjoyable, and it would have been wonderful to read even more of his writing.

I would not put Mr. Morris up on the same level as Mark Twain (and he probably would not want it either), but this book reminds me in a lot of ways of Tom Sawyer--a young boy's life on the Mississippi Delta. Everyone should experience these memories, whether in real time or vicariously.

He tells of his childhood in Yazoo City, Mississippi, with all his childhood friends, including Spit McGee (the forty's Huckleberry Finn). He recalls their baseball games, football games, hunting on the Delta with his father, practical jokes played on anyone and everyone. He recounts the story of the Witch of Yazoo and the broken chain. One of the best and most humorous of his stories is the tale of the haunted house and what the boys found in it one dark and stormy night.

I best remember in this book the chapters of a typical day in the life of a boy his age in Yazoo City--a day in the summer and a day in the fall. These are great vignettes and very poignant pulling in the reader to want to recall his or her own childhood memories.

This is a great memoir and can be enjoyed by all.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willie done right, December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood (Paperback)

This was a great book ... I am from MS and Good Ol' Boy really makes you feel what it could have been like growing up in the Delta. If you dig Southern Lit, you won't be disappointed.