Published by 3 different publishers (Borzoi Books/Alfred Knopf, 1992, and Northland Publishing, 1997) since its original edition from Random House in 1966, Whichaway has also been optioned by 3 different Hollywood producers over the decades for a possible TV-Movie or low-budget feature film. That multitude of interest by literary and film professionals qualifies this great little Western coming-of-age survival story as a "Classic."
It gets bone lonesome being the only teenaged boy on a remote Arizona ranch in 1923. No wonder Whichaway's always talking to himself or his horse. No wonder he forgets things, has trouble concentrating and tends to wander off into the blue yonder. Why else would he take a notion to ride out to a sinister place like Crazy Men Mesa -- especially when a storm's brewing?
The next thing he knows, a huge dust devil strikes the windmill he's greasing, leaving Whichaway stranded 30 feet off the ground on a wooden platform with two broken legs. What will he do? Nobody knows where he is except a couple of cattle rustlers, and they've left him alone to die. The other passersby in these parts are few...and murderous. The sun brands him red. Days and nights pass with no water and no rescue. The boy's world shrinks until it was as small as his own skin and skull. Even in his pain and delirium, one thing is clear: now would be a good time to take charge of things and learn to think like a man. For unless he gets down from this tall windmill somehow by himself, he is going to die....
Find out what a 15-year-old teenager named Whichaway does in this exciting story of bravery and and self-reliance set against a rugged Arizona landscape.
Reviews --
"With its vivid characters, its suspense, its lean writing always fresh, vigorous, and true, Whichaway may well become a minor classic." Chicago Tribune
"It took only two pages for the story to jump the hurdles and be off and running -- and never stop until its triumphant finish....This is one of the rare ones." Publishers Weekly
"Remarkably convincing." Saturday Review
"A taut, compelling story of an Arizona rancher's son who, stranded by two broken legs on a four-by-four platform of a windmill tower 30 feet above the ground, survives two days and two nights of pain, thirst, hunger, fear, and desperation and finally contrives a way to get himself down and astride his horse. Vivid, incisive writing gives reality and immediacy to the narrative which perceptively reveals every thought and emotion of the inept fifteen-year-old boy through the man-making ordeal that helps him decide 'whichaway' he is going." Booklist
"Whichaway is not a question readers will have to ask. Once they start this, they'll read it right through to the end without stopping or losing their place....Unusual and absorbing, it's a book young people can enjoy discussing."
Kirkus Reviews
"Whichaway is a fifteen-year-old ranch boy at the Box O, a spread near Prescott, Arizona, who gets stranded atop a 30-foot windmill with both legs broken and nobody but a couple of cattle rustlers for company down below. This is a terrific, good-humored story, full of the spirit of an unforgettable kid who lingers in the mind long after the last page has turned."
Dale Walker, Sunday Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.
It gets bone lonesome being the only teenaged boy on a remote Arizona ranch in 1923. No wonder Whichaway's always talking to himself or his horse. No wonder he forgets things, has trouble concentrating and tends to wander off into the blue yonder. Why else would he take a notion to ride out to a sinister place like Crazy Men Mesa -- especially when a storm's brewing?
The next thing he knows, a huge dust devil strikes the windmill he's greasing, leaving Whichaway stranded 30 feet off the ground on a wooden platform with two broken legs. What will he do? Nobody knows where he is except a couple of cattle rustlers, and they've left him alone to die. The other passersby in these parts are few...and murderous. The sun brands him red. Days and nights pass with no water and no rescue. The boy's world shrinks until it was as small as his own skin and skull. Even in his pain and delirium, one thing is clear: now would be a good time to take charge of things and learn to think like a man. For unless he gets down from this tall windmill somehow by himself, he is going to die....
Find out what a 15-year-old teenager named Whichaway does in this exciting story of bravery and and self-reliance set against a rugged Arizona landscape.
Reviews --
"With its vivid characters, its suspense, its lean writing always fresh, vigorous, and true, Whichaway may well become a minor classic." Chicago Tribune
"It took only two pages for the story to jump the hurdles and be off and running -- and never stop until its triumphant finish....This is one of the rare ones." Publishers Weekly
"Remarkably convincing." Saturday Review
"A taut, compelling story of an Arizona rancher's son who, stranded by two broken legs on a four-by-four platform of a windmill tower 30 feet above the ground, survives two days and two nights of pain, thirst, hunger, fear, and desperation and finally contrives a way to get himself down and astride his horse. Vivid, incisive writing gives reality and immediacy to the narrative which perceptively reveals every thought and emotion of the inept fifteen-year-old boy through the man-making ordeal that helps him decide 'whichaway' he is going." Booklist
"Whichaway is not a question readers will have to ask. Once they start this, they'll read it right through to the end without stopping or losing their place....Unusual and absorbing, it's a book young people can enjoy discussing."
Kirkus Reviews
"Whichaway is a fifteen-year-old ranch boy at the Box O, a spread near Prescott, Arizona, who gets stranded atop a 30-foot windmill with both legs broken and nobody but a couple of cattle rustlers for company down below. This is a terrific, good-humored story, full of the spirit of an unforgettable kid who lingers in the mind long after the last page has turned."
Dale Walker, Sunday Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado
