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 is 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.
