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Whichaway
Fifteen-year-old Whichaway, son of a stone-faced Arizona rancher, legs broken in an accident atop a windmill, struggles to survive after cattle rustlers have left him to die.
- GenresFictionYoung Adult
Paperback
First published November 1, 1966
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26 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Swarthout
7 booksKathryn Swarthout, the widow of Glendon and mother of Miles, was a former elementary school teacher for five years at Red Cedar School in East Lansing, Michigan, after earning her Master's in Education at Michigan State University, and B. A. in English from the University of Michigan.
She co-wrote six juvenile novels with her husband and a number of them have been published overseas. Kathryn was also a columnist for Woman's Day Magazine with her free-form poetry, Lifesavors, which ran in the magazine for over twenty years. Some of these columns were published in a book of the same title by Doubleday in 1982.
In 1962, Glendon and Kathryn established the Swarthout Writing Prizes at Arizona State University, administered by the English Department in Tempe. Forty-six years old now, these six prizes in both poetry and fiction (with a current top prize of $2700 in each category), have grown until they now rank among the top five cash prizes financially for undergraduate and graduate writing programs at all the colleges and universities in America.
She co-wrote six juvenile novels with her husband and a number of them have been published overseas. Kathryn was also a columnist for Woman's Day Magazine with her free-form poetry, Lifesavors, which ran in the magazine for over twenty years. Some of these columns were published in a book of the same title by Doubleday in 1982.
In 1962, Glendon and Kathryn established the Swarthout Writing Prizes at Arizona State University, administered by the English Department in Tempe. Forty-six years old now, these six prizes in both poetry and fiction (with a current top prize of $2700 in each category), have grown until they now rank among the top five cash prizes financially for undergraduate and graduate writing programs at all the colleges and universities in America.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 10, 2010
It's actually by Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout. Short, gritty YA about an Arizona ranch misfit boy; survival story. Very good.
March 25, 2014
Whichaway has the unusual distinction of being published by 3 different publishers over the decades, which marks it as a "classic" in my definition of that overused term. Random House in hard cover in 1966; Alfred Knopf in paperback in 1992 and Northland Press in a larger trade paperback edition in 1997, making this Young Adult gem ripe for reprinting by some other wise publisher in this new century.
It gets bone lonesome being the only boy on a remote Arizona ranch. No wonder Whichaway's always talking to himself or his horse, Dub. No wonder he forgets things, has trouble concentrating, and tends to wander off into the blue. 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 ankles. 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. Days and nights pass with no water and no rescue. The boy's world shrinks until it is as small as his own skin and skull. Even in his pain and delirium, though, 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 windmill somehow by himself, he is going to die....
Find out what a boy called Whichaway does in this exciting story of bravery and self-reliance set against a rugged Arizona landscape.
More about the writing Swarthouts, all the novels, the 9 films made from these stories, film trailers, and the screenplays (originals and adaptations), is available on our literary website -- www.glendonswarthout.com
Book 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." the Saturday Review of Literature
"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 a man-making ordeal that helps him decide 'whichaway' he is going."
the Booklist of the American Library Association
"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 Book 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 is turned." Dale Walker, Sunday Rocky Mountain News Denver, Colorado
It gets bone lonesome being the only boy on a remote Arizona ranch. No wonder Whichaway's always talking to himself or his horse, Dub. No wonder he forgets things, has trouble concentrating, and tends to wander off into the blue. 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 ankles. 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. Days and nights pass with no water and no rescue. The boy's world shrinks until it is as small as his own skin and skull. Even in his pain and delirium, though, 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 windmill somehow by himself, he is going to die....
Find out what a boy called Whichaway does in this exciting story of bravery and self-reliance set against a rugged Arizona landscape.
More about the writing Swarthouts, all the novels, the 9 films made from these stories, film trailers, and the screenplays (originals and adaptations), is available on our literary website -- www.glendonswarthout.com
Book 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." the Saturday Review of Literature
"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 a man-making ordeal that helps him decide 'whichaway' he is going."
the Booklist of the American Library Association
"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 Book 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 is turned." Dale Walker, Sunday Rocky Mountain News Denver, Colorado
June 19, 2008
A very short, funny, entertaining story of a young teenager coming into his own on a ranch in the midwest. A quick read. WOuld be great to read-a-loud to your older elementary kids over a couple of nights (JOHN).
April 12, 2008
gross
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews