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Pros: Woody was a confused and desperate boy who had been through far too much in such a short time. Though he didn't always make the best decisions he was still a kind-hearted soul who tried to do the right thing/Riley Jones (the old man) was a good hearted if gruff character/The parts that showed the obvious racial tension within the Country and how Jones/Woody handled them only helped cement the fact that they were the good guys, treating others as they would be treated/Rutledge really did her homework on the history of the Country during the Depression and Dust Bowl.
Cons: Augusta inadvertently caused more problems and she was also a liar which was unfortunate/She drove cross country quite well for a woman who had no license and had never driven a car before/The sad state of the Country and the obvious racial tension was a disheartening and unfortunate truth of the world.
Full Review:
Woodrow (Woody) Wilson Nickel has lived for over one hundred years. He's slowly rotting away in a VA nursing home, emotionally empty and basically already dead on his feet. When the news runs a story about how Giraffes and other wild creatures are on the verge of extinction, that snaps Woody out of his fugue and puts some life back into his bones. He punches the TV, breaking it and is brought back to his room. Suddenly feeling more alive than he has in years, he comes to realize two things.
1. He doesn't have much time left, he can feel the Grim Reaper closing in with every uneven beat of his failing heart.
2. It's high time he told his story. The amazing adventure he had with a grizzled old man, driving the strangest cargo from New York to California, two Giraffes, bound for the San Diego Zoo.
The reader is brought back to 1938 when the Country was in the depths of the Depression and being ravaged by the Dust Bowl. Woody, only 17, is now an orphan. He's put everyone he loves into the ground, his parents and his sister succumbing to the miseries of life in the panhandle of Texas and the Dust Pneumonia, a common killer when the air was so thick with dust from loose top-soil that was the deadly result of over-farming.
Knowing there's nothing but guilt and loneliness left for him, Woody manages to make his way from Texas to New York and finds his last living relative, a cousin who begrudgingly allows him to stay. It's only been a few weeks when Woody decides that once he has the means, he'll set off on his own again. Anything will be better than dealing with Cuz's constant criticism and cruelty.
Fate, it seems, is listening and his decision to cut and run is made for him when a devastating Hurricaine ravages the East Coast. It leaves death and destruction in its wake but Woody survives and Cuz does not. Alone again and trying to figure out what he'll do now, Woody wanders aimlessly through the broken streets of the city until he comes to the Harbor and witnesses something incredible.
A boat has managed to limp its way to port and begins to unloads its very unique cargo. Two giraffes that are bound for the San Diego Zoo. Woody watches, enthralled, as a man arrives, has a quick, heated conversation with the harbormaster and then a doctor from the Bronx Zoo appears and examines the shell-shocked animals. He's wary to mark them as fit for travel but the first man is determined to see that the Giraffes start making their long way trek to the their final destination.
Finally the Giraffes are loaded into a truck and are taken to quarantine and Woody manages to follow, easily hiding amongst the crowds of star struck, shell shocked people who watch the strange spectacle of two Giraffes being carted through the streets of New York City. He hides out for days watching as a crate is built to house the Giraffes on their long journey. As he waits for the preparations to be complete, he runs into a beautiful, feisty, photographer for a local newspaper, Augusta Red. They're both determined to see this trip through to the end. Augusta, for the chance of her photographs to be displayed in a photo-essay in Life Magazine and Woody, for the chance to make it to the promised land of California and start a new life.
Though Woody isn't entirely honest with Jones when he first convinces him to hire him as a driver, to cart the precious cargo across the vastness of America, he soon grows closer to the old man and even forms something close to a friendship. And always just a bit behind them on the road, is Red, snapping photos and witnessing all their successes and failures along the way.
This was an incredible, poignant, sometimes gut-wrenching but always heartfelt coming of age story that showed the true goodness of some and the wickedness of others. While the Country was still trying to heal from the Depression and the threat of War was creeping in on the horizon, Woody comes into his own and learns so much about himself, about the world and about his fellow man. It was an entertaining, exciting and emotional read and its a book that will stay with me for a long time to come.
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