Boyhood Along the Brook Called Horn

Rating:
Summary: Modern Huckleberry Finn
Review: Amazingly enjoyable book! I laughed and I cried as I followed Billy Jeter around in these true reminiscences of a young boys life in small town America. This author captures the essence of being a boy: making discoveries, a boy's imagination, creating adventure, innocent and hilarious mischief.

This was like reading about my own childhood. I could smell the smells, laugh at the laugh's, feel the "scardiness" of getting into trouble. The railroad adventure is a dream I always had, but never had the guts to do as a kid. I lived it finally, vicariously through Jeter's real life description.

His drawings give life to each story, and amazingly some of them look just like the stuff I was trying to create or play with as a kid. Except he did it a lot better.

Read this book if you want to re-live your life as a kid, or perhaps want to see what it should have been like. It has everything: nostalgia,memories, and a glimpse of a simpler and less ccyical time in life.

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: Bill Jeter and I are old college friends and we shared may adventures as young adults.
The sincerity and truthfullness with which Bill recalls his boyhood was indeed refreshing and took me back to my youth many times. In talking with Bill he never refers to himself as a great writer, only a "creative rememberer." I believe that he only has the thought half right, he is a great writer

Rating:
Summary: wish I was there!
Review: Bill's story of his childhhod is filled with so much, it makes you wonder why we ever grow up? I wish I had such a childhood with all the adventures. His life along the creek there resembles a Disney movie, though it was real and he was lucky enough to live it. There is so much packed into his childhood from love to adventure to sadly, a passing of a sibling. I felt warm, happy and a bit envious of Mr. Jeter after I read his story. It is a slice of life that not many get to experience.

Rating:
Summary: Boyhood Along the Brook Called Horn
Review: I have very close ties and fond memories of rural California during the 1940's. Mr. Jeter was able to capture those memories and put them on paper - a rare gift. As well as enjoying the stories, I found his artwork delightful. I have recommended it to all my friends as: one of those books that makes you very sad when you are finished and realize that you have to leave this young man's adventures behind.

Rating:
Summary: Boyhood Along the Brook Called Horn
Review: I have very close ties and fond memories of rural California during the 1940's. Mr. Jeter was able to capture those memories and put them on paper - a rare gift. As well as enjoying the stories, I found his artwork delightful. I have recommended it to all my friends as: one of those books that makes you very sad when you are finished and realize that you have to leave this young man's adventures behind.

Rating:
Summary: Evocative
Review: I read a chapter of this book every night before I go to sleep. It relaxes me and makes me smile. Author Bill Jeter's account of a happy boyhood takes me back to the summers that I spent in his neighborhood -- the California Sierra Mountains -- with my parents and relatives. Jeter writes from the viewpoint of a boy, in rich, descriptive language, and illustrates his adventures with delightful, pen-and-ink drawings. He has captured the high whistle of the winds, the pungent pine smell of forest air, the music of running brooks, and the unspoiled sweep of high meadow. His accounts of hiking, camping out, cleaning a rifle, hanging out at the general store, rafting on the nearby creek, and making his own rafts, backpacks, boomerangs, and kites, restore my faith in children's creativity and craftsmanship. I plan to read this book again and again. It makes me want all children to experience the beauty of growing up in nature, with parents who encourage them to do things for themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Evocative
Review: I read a chapter of this book every night before I go to sleep. It relaxes me and makes me smile. Author Bill Jeter's account of a happy boyhood takes me back to the summers that I spent in his neighborhood -- the California Sierra Mountains -- with my parents and relatives. Jeter writes from the viewpoint of a boy, in rich, descriptive language, and illustrates his adventures with delightful, pen-and-ink drawings. He has captured the high whistle of the winds, the pungent pine smell of forest air, the music of running brooks, and the unspoiled sweep of high meadow. His accounts of hiking, camping out, cleaning a rifle, hanging out at the general store, rafting on the nearby creek, and making his own rafts, backpacks, boomerangs, and kites, restore my faith in children's creativity and craftsmanship. I plan to read this book again and again. It makes me want all children to experience the beauty of growing up in nature, with parents who encourage them to do things for themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: What a great glimpse into simpler times, before a TV in every house, before Game Boy, Nintendo and computers! A time when a kid used his imagination for entertainment. My 8 year old son had a great time reading this with me. We strongly recommend it for summertime reading!