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Tumbleweed Thompson #2
The Golden Road of Tumbleweed Thompson
In the nine months since Tumbleweed Thompson left the town of Rattlesnake Junction, Colorado, for life on the road with the Coyote Pete Frontier Show, Eugene Appleton has found himself yearning for a taste of the adventures he imagines his new friend having on the American frontier. Life at home changes in an instant when Tumbleweed once again finds a way to interrupt Eugene’s life to ask for his help in solving the sudden disappearance of his father. And so, the two set off on a life-changing quest in search of the fabled treasure of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Filled with pulse-bounding adventure, suspense, humor, and moments of rich beauty as Eugene and Tumbleweed explore the American West in all its ruggedness and splendor, The Golden Road of Tumbleweed Thompson will take readers on a remarkable journey.
445 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 19, 2024
13 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Glenn McCarty
7 books33 followersGlenn McCarty was raised in the shadow of Walt Disney World, and has never really grown up. It’s okay, though, because he writes imaginative stories for young people. He suspects this may be a competitive advantage, but he’s never been tested for it. He is not, however, an Animatronic robot. Only when dancing …
Glenn lives with his wife and children in a small town in Western New York that’s pretty much Mayberry. But without Don Knotts. Bummer. He also has a dog who likes to bark at people, then boldly run and hide from them. He is the author of The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson, a middle grade frontier adventure novel. He also proudly contributes to Story Warren, a website which partners with parents to nurture holy imagination in children through stories. For more information, visit glennmccarty.com/newsletter
Glenn lives with his wife and children in a small town in Western New York that’s pretty much Mayberry. But without Don Knotts. Bummer. He also has a dog who likes to bark at people, then boldly run and hide from them. He is the author of The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson, a middle grade frontier adventure novel. He also proudly contributes to Story Warren, a website which partners with parents to nurture holy imagination in children through stories. For more information, visit glennmccarty.com/newsletter
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 31, 2025
Another awesome tale by Glenn McCarty! Our family was so excited for another story featuring Eugene & Tumbleweed! This fun wild-west adventure of these two friends is full of twists and turns that kept us hooked. One of my kids said this book has the best hijinks, and the other said it is full of heart! We loved catching up with some of our favourite characters and rooted for them as they faced some dilemmas and were delighted with their growth. My kids loved all the Dead-eye Dan references. We love the illustrations by Joe Sutphin in the physical copy - none of us imagined Beauregard to look like that & now we can't imagine him any other way! We also highly enjoyed listening to Glenn McCarty bring the story to life as he narrated the audiobook. We can't wait to find out what comes next for Eugene & Tumbleweed and the rest of our favourites from Rattlesnake Junction!
As a parent, I really appreciate stories like this one where virtue and morals are portrayed positively. I love that this story is a fun romp without sacrificing goodness & beauty, and is without the base humour or agenda so prevalent today in stories for kids. It's wonderful when we can find a clean story that appeals to our entire family!
As a parent, I really appreciate stories like this one where virtue and morals are portrayed positively. I love that this story is a fun romp without sacrificing goodness & beauty, and is without the base humour or agenda so prevalent today in stories for kids. It's wonderful when we can find a clean story that appeals to our entire family!
January 17, 2025
Quite nice little adventure and sequel.
October 18, 2025
This is the second book about Tumbleweed Thomspon and his friend Eugene Appleton (told from Eugene's first-person point of view). Just like the first, The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson, this is a great read for middle-grades. It does use some "darn" and "heck", but otherwise it's pretty clean.
Read
January 13, 2025This was a delight to work on as an editor! An adventurous story with heart that middle grade readers will love!
January 9, 2026
This was a fun, adventure-packed readaloud for a family full of boys!
January 1, 2025
Author Glenn McCarty returns to his inventive and richly developed Wild West, as seen through the eyes of a high-spirited frontier boy. Young Gene Appleton shares an obsession with his best friend, Tumbleweed Thompson, over a series of dime novels about Dead-Eye Dan. The fictional marshal captures all the qualities the boys most value in a man—namely, the daring hero who brings justice to a broken world.
It’s only fitting, then, that when Tumbleweed’s father goes missing while searching for treasure, the boys take it upon themselves to go after him. With little hope to trace the man across the wilderness, there is something the boys can do: seek the treasure themselves, hoping their paths eventually meet.
Also seeking the treasure is the mysterious Sean McCaskill and author of the boys’ beloved Dead-Eye Dan novels. McCaskill wants to write about the treasure and carries a journal full of clues, incomplete without Tumbleweed’s father’s map. The famed author proposes to help the boys and share the treasure together.
From the moment the boys join forces with McCaskill, it becomes clear how things will play out. The imminent betrayal looms over every chapter with precise and intentional predictability, quietly building tension as the quest inches closer to Tumbleweed’s father, and therefore closer to the treasure, where a showdown is inevitable.
Gene only questions the Dead-Eye Dan author after a dream in which he and McCaskill sprout wings and fly. Like Icarus, McCaskill’s ambition takes him too close to the sun, his wings burn off, and he falls. Gene is hesitant to believe his dream could be prophetic. But as the quest nears its end and the treasure is within reach, the boy realizes the purpose of his dream was never to tell the future. Rather, its meaning was in the underlying perception of hidden things around him, namely McCaskill’s true colors. In other words, in an ironic twist, his dream was his gut stirring his own eyes awake.
Gene concludes that a part of him must have been fully aware of McCaskill’s motives from the beginning but chose to ignore the intuition in favor of going on a treasure hunt with a famous author, one whose writings shaped not only the boy’s character but also that of his best friend, Tumbleweed.
But rather than wallowing in being fooled, Gene decides to confront McCaskill as his villainy comes to light. The boy profoundly states he simply can’t watch someone write stories about a hero who does good and loves justice, only for that same author to fail to uphold those virtues in real life.
“You’re writing for us, so we can believe in something good and true. I know that’s what wakes you up in the morning. Or at least, it used to, didn’t it, when you first started out?”
The boy reminds McCaskill of the words of Jesus in Scripture, that narrow is the way to life, and wide is the path to destruction. There is no danger of losing footing on the wide path as there is so much room in its width. It’s the narrow path we tend to slip on and must always watch our step as we cross. But even if we do fall, there’s more than enough forgiveness to help us back onto its path. For Gene, this is the only road that leads to gold.
And this is why “The Golden Road of Tumbleweed Thompson,” by Glenn McCarty and illustrated by Joe Sutphin, is such a moving and powerful display of finding the gold within each other. Highly recommended.
It’s only fitting, then, that when Tumbleweed’s father goes missing while searching for treasure, the boys take it upon themselves to go after him. With little hope to trace the man across the wilderness, there is something the boys can do: seek the treasure themselves, hoping their paths eventually meet.
Also seeking the treasure is the mysterious Sean McCaskill and author of the boys’ beloved Dead-Eye Dan novels. McCaskill wants to write about the treasure and carries a journal full of clues, incomplete without Tumbleweed’s father’s map. The famed author proposes to help the boys and share the treasure together.
From the moment the boys join forces with McCaskill, it becomes clear how things will play out. The imminent betrayal looms over every chapter with precise and intentional predictability, quietly building tension as the quest inches closer to Tumbleweed’s father, and therefore closer to the treasure, where a showdown is inevitable.
Gene only questions the Dead-Eye Dan author after a dream in which he and McCaskill sprout wings and fly. Like Icarus, McCaskill’s ambition takes him too close to the sun, his wings burn off, and he falls. Gene is hesitant to believe his dream could be prophetic. But as the quest nears its end and the treasure is within reach, the boy realizes the purpose of his dream was never to tell the future. Rather, its meaning was in the underlying perception of hidden things around him, namely McCaskill’s true colors. In other words, in an ironic twist, his dream was his gut stirring his own eyes awake.
Gene concludes that a part of him must have been fully aware of McCaskill’s motives from the beginning but chose to ignore the intuition in favor of going on a treasure hunt with a famous author, one whose writings shaped not only the boy’s character but also that of his best friend, Tumbleweed.
But rather than wallowing in being fooled, Gene decides to confront McCaskill as his villainy comes to light. The boy profoundly states he simply can’t watch someone write stories about a hero who does good and loves justice, only for that same author to fail to uphold those virtues in real life.
“You’re writing for us, so we can believe in something good and true. I know that’s what wakes you up in the morning. Or at least, it used to, didn’t it, when you first started out?”
The boy reminds McCaskill of the words of Jesus in Scripture, that narrow is the way to life, and wide is the path to destruction. There is no danger of losing footing on the wide path as there is so much room in its width. It’s the narrow path we tend to slip on and must always watch our step as we cross. But even if we do fall, there’s more than enough forgiveness to help us back onto its path. For Gene, this is the only road that leads to gold.
And this is why “The Golden Road of Tumbleweed Thompson,” by Glenn McCarty and illustrated by Joe Sutphin, is such a moving and powerful display of finding the gold within each other. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews