Rating: 
Summary: I haven't laughed so hard in years!
Review: I made the grave mistake of trying to read this book while on a public bus. It wasn't long before I realized the folly in this, as I repeatedly had to stifle the wild guffaws that threatened to pour forth without my consent. The other passengers probably came to the conclusion that I was either very sick or slightly deranged as I rocked back and forth in my seat and tried to pretend that I was, in fact, merely coughing. Gary Paulsen has offered us one of the most hilarious accounts of running the Iditarod that I have ever come across.Living in Minnesota, Paulsen had a small team of five dogs that he used to work his traplines. Over time he became more and more entranced with mushing, until he eventually realized that wanted to, needed to, run the Iditarod - the 1,100+ mile dogsled race stretching across the state of Alaska between Anchorage and Nome. The first half of the book deals with his preparation for the race - finding more dogs, training the dogs, getting the right equipment, etc. We soon see that he has quite a bit to learn. Over the course of this training period, Paulsen finds himself attacked by dogs, run away with by dogs, and often spending many miles being dragged along on the ground behind his sled by dogs. He manages to break his sled repeatedly, get separated from his team, and one night, get sprayed by five different skunks in rapid succession. He is, in short, one of the least qualified of all possible Iditarod candidates. The second half of the book takes us through the race itself. In the beginning, he makes every possible rookie mistake. He gets lost before even leaving the city of Anchorage, after putting the wrong animal in the lead-dog position: "We went through people's yards, ripped down fences, knocked over garbage cans. At one point I found myself going through a carport and across a backyard with fifteen dogs and a fully loaded Iditarod sled. A woman standing over the kitchen sink looked out with wide eyes as we passed through her yard and I snapped a wave at her before clawing the handlebar once again to hang on while we tore down her picket fence when Wilson [the lead dog] tried to thread through a hole not much bigger than a housecat. And there is a cocker spaniel who will never come into his backyard again. He heard us coming and turned to bark just as the entire team ran over him; I flipped one of the runners up to just miss his back and we were gone, leaving him standing facing the wrong way barking at whatever it was that had hit him" (pg. 145). Much of the first half of the race is a series of such uproarious follies. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the other mushers had voted Paulsen the least likely competitor to get out of Anchorage. But he eventually did, and he ultimately manages to muddle his way through the entire race. As the journey goes on, the book becomes a little more serious as we see Paulsen undergo a transformation. He learns about himself, about the dogs, and about life. He feels himself become one with the frozen world of the north, eventually feeling more at home there that he had with his wife and family in Minnesota. There are sad parts, too. We see a beloved dog trampled to death by a moose before the first day is over. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurence. Moose do not yield the right-of-way to dog teams, and can be extremely dangerous when upset. We also see a maddened musher kill one of his own dogs in a fit of rage. Killing or abusing dogs during the race is strictly prohibited, and the man was duly disqualified, but I still found this the hardest part of the book to read. 'Winterdance' is a magnificent story of a man following his dream and gaining a wealth of knowledge about himself and the world. Paulsen's easy, self-deprecating humor and vivid verbal imagery bring the story to life. It is also a fast read - I finished the book in one day. I have rarely read anything that has made me laugh so hard, or that has moved me so much by the end. Growing up in Alaska, I always watched the Iditarod start in Anchorage. I've met some of the winning mushers. But Paulsen's story is entirely unique. He was not a race champion or mushing hero, but the rankest rookie out there. And yet he endears himself to our hearts. For any fan of dog mushing, wilderness survival stories, or both, I recommend this book without hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Told, Laugh and Cry Out Loud
Review: After my sister read me one excerpt of the book, I knew I had to read it. This is the story of a man who decided to run the iditarod, somewhat blindly. From beginning to end, Paulsen wraps you into his insane sounding world of training and running the race. The chapter "Major Wrecks" had me lauging out loud, despite the injuries he was suffering, only because Paulsen freely admits his naivette throughout the book. Conversely, he brought me close to tears when describing some of the horrible things that happen, both to dogs and mushers during the race. If you love dogs, you must read this book. If you're thinking about running the Iditarod, you must read this book. If you like a good story about true events, mixing humor, drama, and sadness, you must read this book. The entire book is so well written that I had trouble allowing myself to put it down and get some sleep. My only complaint is that he hinted at but never told the reader at what point in the race he had been mistakenly reported dead for 2 hours.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Account of Iditarod Hilarity and Difficulties
Review: An awesome book that keeps you entertained from the moment you pick it up to the moment you put it down. The book is touted as a "must read" for dog lovers. I'm not a dog lover, nor am I a dog owner. Yet I believe you could claim this is a must read for anyone. The book is so much more than a dog lover's book. It's a great story regardless. The guy writing the book tells the story of his adventure training for, and running, the Iditarod. As you likely know, this is an extremely long dog sled race across a part of Alaska. From the moment he decides to do this, a litany of bad decisions and on-the-fly learning experiences make the author realize that nothing is ever as easy as he thinks. This is especially true when you line up so many sled-pulling dogs and try to contain them in any way, shape, or form. The story plunges through miles of snow packed narrative that makes you laugh with almost every paragraph. In addition to his hilarious trials and tribulations, the author comes to love the outdoors and be at one with his dogs. His relationship with the dogs grows to a point where considers himself one of them. He comes to understand this is part of what the Iditarod is; becoming part dog. Together they endure the brutal weather, the long days, and slowly become a team. The narrative is engrossing, pulling you in and letting you out only when the words run dry. The book is short; you could read the entire thing in a long afternoon. But it's too good to read that quickly. Consuming it in one sitting would be a waste of enjoyment. It's much better to give yourself small doses of laughter instead of ingesting it all at once. It's a great book. I'm not sure there's much more to say about it than that. Well worth the read. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Winterdance Review
Review: Winterdance is a book about a crazed fool who tries to run the Iditarod without any real knowledge of the race and very little experience with running dog sled teams. This makes Gary Paulsen's trip across Alaska hilarious and entertaining. One example of this is toward the beginning of the book when he falls off his sled during training. His snow hook catches in his boot and the dogs drag him around. During the turns the dogs crack the whip, and he "established intimate relations with trees". Paulsen talks you through his entire trip across Alaska in this same funny way. Winterdance is told through Gary Paulsen's eyes but is not limited to him as the main character. Some of the other main characters include but are not limited to Cookie, his female lead dog, Devil, his crazy mean male dog that eats anything that moves or at least takes a bite out of it, and Max, male his weakest link. Normally I only read fantasy books, but I found that Gary Paulsen's Winterdance both funny and entertaining enough to please me.
Rating:
Summary: winterdance
Review: Winterdance is filled with adventure and fun. I enjoy novels about sports and animals. Some of my favorite books are The Contender and Where The Red Fern Grows this book is up there with them. I found it very funny. It deals with Gary Pulsen description of preparing and running the Iditarod.
The story starts out with Paulsen and his favorite dog, Cookie. Paulsen describes his search for dogs and training them and himself for the iditarod. Along the way he finds some interesting ways of doing this. Paulsen ends up hitting a lot of tress while being dragged by his dogs, and that's just the beginning. The race tended to be even funnier. Winterdance kept my interest in different ways. It was hilarious and I always wanted to find out what happened next. Paulsen was in the middle of the race when the snow picked up. The next thing he knew he was in the middle of the snowstorm. He went in his sleeping bag. When he woke up the next morning, Paulsen found out that he was covered in snow. When he stood up to go to the bathroom, he was surprised and you will be too. I think Winterdance would be a good book for anyone into adventure books with lots and lots of laughs.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Adventure Story by a Great Author
Review: I have always been interested in dogs and sports involving them, so I thought this would be a good book. I was right. WINTERDANCE was a humorous, easy-to-read story (Which I finished in two days). The plot is fast-paced, and this is not the kind of story where you get one page into it and quit. It's about a dog musher who decides to run the Iditarod. He doesn't realize what he's getting himself into and what a serious commitment it is. He survives the tough training, but it is nothing compared to the real race.Before he finally crosses the finish line, he has been victim of a moose attack, had hallucinations, fallen off a cliff, gotten lost, and almost frozen to death! It keeps you on the edge of your seat. On the down side, this book draws a rather abrupt, and not very satisfying conclusion. A few parts are poorly written (Although most of in is well written). It also has profanity. Lots of it. This book is definitely not for very young children. But overall, it is a very satisfying read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, not great
Review: First, this is a one-day book, 250 pages of large type. So if you're looking for an in-depth tale of the Iditarod, look elsewhere. Second, the first 50 pages are some of the worst prose I've read in years. But after that Paulsen finds his pace, uneven as it is, and I started to thoroughly enjoy it. Paulsen paints an entertaining picture of his amateurish preparations and training for the race. But the pace shifts again as the race starts and he turns serious. From then on, the reader begins to feel both the stark beauty and the incredible harshness of the race. One can also feel the joy of the dogs who love to run, and sense Paulsen's decline into exhaustion, not so much from his words but from the fact that he writes (I suppose because he recalls) less and less as the race wears on. This is an intensely personal book, full of downright foolhardy determination, and worth the short time it takes to read.
Rating:
Summary: For those who love animals, have had a chance to work and play
Review: Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is an absolutely fascinating and entertaining depiction about how one man lives out his dream of running in the Iditarod sled-dog race. From the moment we meet Gary and his dog team in a winter storm in Minnesota till the time he gets dragged down Dalzell Gorge in Alaska, his optimism, his observations and his relationship with his dogs keeps one glued to the pages of this book. Paulsen's personal account is easy reading in that he does not dwell in complex literary style, use large words or go overboard in describing deep characters or flowery scenery. He merely relates what he sees and feels. Often his mission is just staying alive and attached to his sled. His descriptions about his summer training with a bicycle and a car body leave you laughing out loud and in wonder about his perseverance and dedication to his dream" You look like a toy", Ruth (his wife) said as I came back from being dragged out of the yard on my face, hanging on to the overturned rig. " A big doggie toy...."Out of the first twenty runs, I didn't once leave the yard in one piece." His sense of humor is overwhelming as he tackles training a dog team without any instruction, without a book or manual but only his desire to run dogs to keep him going. 'In subsequent runs I left the yard on my face, my ass, my back, my belly. I dragged for a mile, two miles, three miles. I lost the team eight, ten times; walked twelve, seventeen, once forty-some miles looking for them. The rig broke every time we ran....""I once left the yard with wooden matches in my pocket and had them ignite as I was being dragged past the door of the house, giving me the semblance of a meteorite, screaming something about my balls being on fire at Ruth, who was laughing so hard she couldn't stand." Picturing this scene has got to put a smile on your face even if you can suppress an outward giggle.
In between the excitement, thrill and adventure of the Iditarod is the story of the dogs. Each dog has it's own personality, each has it's role in the team. One learns to respect the lead dog and the decisions they must make for " their choices can literally mean life or death for the team and driver, often when the driver cannot see what is happening." However you often wonder why keep a dog like Devil who won't hesitate to pick a fight, bite the hand that feeds it or cause chaos within the team. Yet he is integral to the whole dog team and Gary reflects about the "bond" between driver and dogs as follows. " Dogs rarely violate this relationship(the bond)-virtually never. Devil may bite me, might kill other dogs, but by god he pulled and would die pulling and that was a kind of love. I have watched them work, always in awe-and not a little love- and sometimes what they are, out ahead of me, the curve from me up through the sled and gangline into the dogs, all of us moving for some new horizon, sometimes it becomes more, becomes spiritual, religious." It is these reflections interspersed between the gruelling physical pain of running eleven hundred and eighty miles in bitter cold, gale force wind and over terrain that makes the moon seem civilized that makes this book so special.
Paulsen finishes the race, and we find out he runs it again. But in the end he is advised "You'll have to lead a normal life". A line on the final page sums up what the Iditarod and this fine piece of writing is all about. Gary says "How can it be to live without the dogs?" For those who love animals, have had a chance to work and play with dogs or for those who just like a good book written from the heart and soul, Winterdance is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: quite fun!
Review: the skunks... the skunks... the skunks!!!!
What a riot!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Account of Iditarod Hilarity and Difficulties
Review: An awesome book that keeps you entertained from the moment you pick it up to the moment you put it down. The book is touted as a "must read" for dog lovers. I'm not a dog lover, nor am I a dog owner. Yet I believe you could claim this is a must read for anyone. The book is so much more than a dog lover's book. It's a great story regardless. The guy writing the book tells the story of his adventure training for, and running, the Iditarod. As you likely know, this is an extremely long dog sled race across a part of Alaska. From the moment he decides to do this, a litany of bad decisions and on-the-fly learning experiences make the author realize that nothing is ever as easy as he thinks. This is especially true when you line up so many sled-pulling dogs and try to contain them in any way, shape, or form. The story plunges through miles of snow packed narrative that makes you laugh with almost every paragraph. In addition to his hilarious trials and tribulations, the author comes to love the outdoors and be at one with his dogs. His relationship with the dogs grows to a point where considers himself one of them. He comes to understand this is part of what the Iditarod is; becoming part dog. Together they endure the brutal weather, the long days, and slowly become a team. The narrative is engrossing, pulling you in and letting you out only when the words run dry. The book is short; you could read the entire thing in a long afternoon. But it's too good to read that quickly. Consuming it in one sitting would be a waste of enjoyment. It's much better to give yourself small doses of laughter instead of ingesting it all at once. It's a great book. I'm not sure there's much more to say about it than that. Well worth the read. I highly recommend it.
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