Trouble Out West: Six weeks surviving rattlesnakes, cowboy pranks, the ghost of General Custer and the girls on the corner.
It's an adventurous trip for brothers Brian and Adam as they travel to a place they've never been before-the wide open spaces of the Dakotas. While they vacation "Out West" younger brother Adam narrates one funny predicament after another, from flying fish hooks on the mighty Missouri River to Indian arrowhead wheeling and dealing.
True to his nature, Adam acts on impulse and is shaken by a haunted shed out back of Mom's house. Adding to his troubles are a cranky old landlady, her frisky cat, and scorching Great Plains weather.
Adam has the wisdom of his older brother, Brian, but together sometimes their trouble just seems to double. Make that quadruple when the boys make new friends with two spunky guys next door.
If four boys and a frisky pup aren't enough to stay out of the way of Mom's busy art studio, try adding honest Hannah and Glitzy Georgia-the girls from down on the corner-into the sun-baked mix. Yet, through their adventures, somehow the brothers learn a lesson or two along the way.
Kate Moynihan juggles her creative juices, art gallery, and eighty-eight year old mom, all the while, writing family stories, adding a twist or two ... maybe three.
You can visit her shop in downtown Holland, MI and watch her toss vivid bits of paint onto oil canvases and watercolor paintings. She's been hanging her hat there for more than twenty-two years. Find out more about Kate at www.moynihangallery.com and visit her blog: The Artsy Shopkeeper.
Trouble Out West: Six weeks surviving rattlesnakes, cowboy pranks, the ghost of General Custer and the girls on the corner. 5 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 7 reviews.
Trouble Out West" is a fun story of boyhood adventures. A visit to Mom in North Dakota allows us to peek into the lives of two boys who come from West Michigan. They spend the summer learning about North Dakota's history and geography, making new friends, learning life lessons, and spending time with their adventuresome, artistic Mom. I appreciated that the book showed children meeting new challenges with nature and enjoying "playing outside." As a retired educator of 40+ years, I highly recommend this book for elementary age children to read themselves or for a literacy-minded adult to read to them. It could be read with younger children as a chapter book with questions about what has occurred and what they predict might happen next.
This is the follow up book to Beached in a Camper by Kate Moynihan, however, it is not necessary to read one book before the other. Trouble Out West again features Brian and Adam in typical boy trouble adventures. The book reads quickly and holds the attention of all ages from early readers to adult. Filled to the end with good clean fun, this book will have you wanting to load up the car and take a trip out West.
Nice to see a wholesome book worthy of reading to our grandchildren: it brings back some of our memories with the added bonus of good, clean fun. The brothers are spending summer vacation with Mom in another part of the country where they turn the ordinary into adventure. Accounts are action driven filled with the imagination and creativity of the boys: the way life use to be before video games. There are plenty of appropriate suspense stoppers heightening the excitement of continued reading. This book is easily readable by 8-12 year olds. Many of today's books are at best corny and have no real moral value in contrast to this read. Brian and Adam, characters in the story, are continually faced with right and wrong dilemmas. Honesty and a respect for adults are strong threads woven throughout the stories along with solid friendships between brothers and with the neighbor kids, values that are very worthy of teaching in today's culture. Given that one of the brothers likes facts, the book also contains some interesting factual information. The book does a wonderful job in illustrating that different personalities are equally valuable: Brian's love for information does not win him the spot of superiority for Adam's soft heartedness touches hearts. I highly recommend this book.
A great choice for anyone who wants to read a fun, adventure story about vacationing in a new, mysterious land: "Out West"! But, this story is much more than just a fun read about two brothers and their summer adventure. It also provides a subtle avenue for discussing deeper subjects which your children or grandchildren just might be experiencing: the difficulty of moving between "Mom's house" and "Dad's house" after a divorce, meeting Mom's new boyfriend for the first time, spending a birthday away from the comforts of home, the challenges of moving to a new area where there aren't any friends YET ... all these topics are woven throughout the story, just in the background, providing a great chance for all kids to relate. Even those who haven't experienced divorce can relate to the challenges of overcoming new situations. But, at heart, this is just a nice old-fashioned story about the adventures of brothers, complete with mud, snakes, arrowheads, ghost stories and, of course, a couple of girls! Enjoy!
Another great one! This second book by Kate Moynihan is just as wonderful as the first! Such an enjoyable and adventurous read! The brothers are at it again, this time in the Great Plains out west. Adam and Brian are having fun and trying oh so hard to stay out of trouble. From encounters with skunks to the girls down the street, even a ghost, you will laugh your way through this one!
Any Young Reader is Going to Love This Book - When I saw this new book for the first time, I think I said this right out loud: "Well, here's a fun one!" It was really a treat to find Kate Moynihan's new work, as well as her previous one, because now I have a nice "go-to" gift for the young readers in my life. Now I can gift wrap "Trouble Out West" and maybe even Kate's earlier "Beached in a Camper" for the children and grandchildren I know. Each chapter is connected and progressive in its storytelling, yet each stands alone as a little story, too. That's especially nice for younger readers, so they can enjoy the book a bit at a time. Here's what I'm going to do: Wrap up Kate's books, wrap up a cute little toy, tie 'em together with some ribbon. Voila! Happy Birthday, kid!