Whichaway

Whichaway has had 3 different publishers over the decades since it was first published by Random House in 1966, then Alfred Knopf (Borzoi Books) in 1992, with the last being a Northland Press trade paperback edition in 1997, making this great period Western story a "Classic" by anybody's definition. It has also been optioned 3 times for a possible TV-Movie or low-budget family film, but has yet to be made, with the film rights to Whichaway now reverted to the Swarthout literary estate. But some day, somebody will.

It gets bone lonesome being the only boy on a remote Arizona ranch. 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. 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, leaaving 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 for a couple of cattle rustlers, and they've left him alone to die. The other passersby in these remote 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 during America's 1920's.

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 ground, survives two days and 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."
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 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 spirit of an unforgettable kid who lingers in the mind long after the last page is turned." Dale Walker, the Sunday Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado