Tiltawhirl John

by Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

You have to take sides to survive--even if the choice tears you apart. From the Newbery Honor winning author of Hatchet , His uncle wants him to stay home and work the farm, but the boy knows there's a world out there he has to see. Yet being a runaway means you're outside the law-- you're fair game. That's how he gets caught on the farm gang. There seems to be no way out, that is until Tiltawhirl John picks him up and teaches him how to be a carnie...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140343121
• ISBN13: 9780140343120
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Tiltawhril John

I have read many other Gray Peulson books before I read this one. I like this book because it was an exciting story of a young boy. The book was told by a thrid persons point of view and it was limited. It was hard for me to put the book down at first, but I put it down advetually. The book is about a teenage boy how wanted to find out what a real life was. He runs away from home, the works on a beet farm. Than runs away from there and meets Tiltwhirl John, Wanda, and Billy. I would recommend this book for a high school aged people and up.

This book is a gem.

I was given an copy of this novella, an origional print, over six years ago. Since then, I've read it at least ten times. This book is marketed as a children's book. It is not, and this perhaps accounts for any negative review it receives. "Tiltawhirl John" begins as the boy, whose name we never learn, is running away from home, avoiding the responsibility of running his uncle's farm. He wants to make a life for himself, to strike it rich. "Tiltawhirl John" is, at the risk of sounding cliched, a coming of age novel.His idealistic fantasies take him to a beet farm, where he is savagely beaten, and then a carnival, where he is befriended by a family.Billy, the tough yet tender geek, Wanda, who runs the "saliva pit," and T-John are among the memorable, beautifully written characters in this book. Paulson has the unique ability to quickly draw complex characters, whether they be a young cowboy or a knife wielding, vengeful ex-lover. Paulson also tells a damn good story. In fact by the end of the book, when you realize that your never again going to hear from Wanda, T-John and Billy, you'll cry. I guarantee it.In summation, this is a lost classic. This is one of those books that deserves to be in the panthean of American novels, but probably won't be, because of dumb luck. Mr. Paulson, if you're out there, I salute you. You're novel has influenced me a great deal.