West With Giraffes Is a Journey Through History and Heart

Jul 17, 2024 - Nancy C.
Review

Lynda Rutledge’s West With Giraffes is a heart-wrenchingly riveting story, all the more so as it is based on a real life event. We first meet 105 year old Woodrow Wilson Nickel at his nursing home where he has just watched a documentary about  the possible extinction of giraffes. This show sets off a firestorm of emotion in ‘Woody’ which propels him to set down to paper an account of his own personal journey, at the age of 17, with 2 giraffes that had been transported from Africa to New York City with a final destination being the San Diego Zoo. By strange happenstance, Woody ends up being the driver of the truck/trailer that is charged with the job of safely delivering the gentle giants to their owner, Mrs Belle Benchley, owner of said zoo.

This story will captivate you with its innocence, daring, kindness and courage. We watch Woody’s own story of family heartbreak unfold as he struggles with adult emotions unfamiliar to an innocent boy from the 1930’s dust bowl of the Texas Panhandle. His bond with ‘Girl’ and ‘Boy’, his names for his beloved friends, form the basis of a lifelong love affair, the only relationship that he faithfully sustains.

For fans of historical fiction, this story will offer you layers of documented facts, from the destruction caused by the Sept 1938 New York hurricane to the devastation inflicted across many parts of Canada and the US during the depression era dustbowl. A very compelling read!

Nancy C.
Library Assistant, John M. Harper Branch

Nancy has worked at the John M. Harper Branch as a Library Assistant for over 11 years. Her best days are when she can introduce readers, both young and not-so-young, to new authors/series. She feels like a kid in a candy store at the library, always amazed at the new finds that she discovers. She loves the wide selection of movies/TV series and has done a good number of the amazing puzzles that are in the collection. Nancy sings in a local choir and hits the stage with a theatre production company in New Hamburg. She is an avid reader, gardener, golfer, and newly back to skiing after a 30-year hiatus.