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A review by tinlizzyd08
West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
5.0
A beautiful story of adventure and love!
Ah, this story captivated me from the first page! I love a down on your luck main character, because truthfully, there have been many moments in my own life that I felt just like Woodrow Wilson Nickel, alone and scared and not knowing what was going to happen next in life.
That’s where Woody’s story begins. It’s 1938, and he’s a young homeless boy on the docks who just lived through a hurricane. He meets 2 giraffes coming off a ship having lived through that same hurricane and he is immediately mesmerized and connected to the majestic African animals. Woody has lost even the little he had in the hurricane and hears the giraffes are headed west to sunny California and so contrives a plan to follow them on their way to their final landing at the San Diego zoo.
America in the 1930s was such a wild and different place than what we know now, and hearing about Woody’s trip through the south and the west was riveting as he encountered bears, hobos, circus thieves and a beautiful redhead reporter. There are plenty of highs and lows to make the book entertaining but I mostly loved Woody’s inner journey as his story of growing up during the traumatic years of the Dust Bowl in Texas comes out in bits and pieces through the book. The journey becomes a rite of passage and an exploration of his self and his past and his possible future. Beautifully written and well worth the read!
Ah, this story captivated me from the first page! I love a down on your luck main character, because truthfully, there have been many moments in my own life that I felt just like Woodrow Wilson Nickel, alone and scared and not knowing what was going to happen next in life.
That’s where Woody’s story begins. It’s 1938, and he’s a young homeless boy on the docks who just lived through a hurricane. He meets 2 giraffes coming off a ship having lived through that same hurricane and he is immediately mesmerized and connected to the majestic African animals. Woody has lost even the little he had in the hurricane and hears the giraffes are headed west to sunny California and so contrives a plan to follow them on their way to their final landing at the San Diego zoo.
America in the 1930s was such a wild and different place than what we know now, and hearing about Woody’s trip through the south and the west was riveting as he encountered bears, hobos, circus thieves and a beautiful redhead reporter. There are plenty of highs and lows to make the book entertaining but I mostly loved Woody’s inner journey as his story of growing up during the traumatic years of the Dust Bowl in Texas comes out in bits and pieces through the book. The journey becomes a rite of passage and an exploration of his self and his past and his possible future. Beautifully written and well worth the read!