This book is a humorous autobiographical account of the escapades of thirteen year old Paulsen and his friends--- a great book of short stories for reluctant readers. The setting for these nonfiction short stories is northwestern Minnesota before television, video games, cell phones and internet---a time when money was short, but imaginations were tall. One story is about Paulsen securing himself in a pickle barrel to “shoot the falls”---a twelve foot drop that almost killed him. Another story is about Paulsen’s cousin and years later Paulsen’s own son which involves them urinating on an electric fence. Paulsen’s son had not heard the story when he tried the “experiment” himself. When Paulsen asked his son if he had peed on the electric fence, his son was surprised and asked, “How did you know?” Paulsen replied, “It’s apparently genetic.” The funniest story is also the title of the book which describes Angel Peterson’s misadventure trying to break a world speed record on snow skis behind a car going eighty miles per hour! ( )

Richie's Picks: HOW ANGEL PETERSON GOT HIS NAME AND OTHER OUTRAGEOUS TALES ABOUT EXTREME SPORTS by Gary Paulsen, Random House/Wendy Lamb Books, January 2003

I sent the following email warning early this morning to the book's editor:

Hi Wendy,

I've just read the forward and the first chapter of Angel Peterson. I'm writing to warn you that I'm leaving a note on my desk, so that if I die laughing they'll know who to blame.

Bill Mollineaux announced that Gary will be at next year's ALAN workshop. If I survive the rest of the book, that should be a blast.

Richie

This is no exaggeration! I was laughing so hard that I woke up Shari AND both dogs!

A longtime friend of mine, who works as our school's counselor--and who gets to borrow the books that I write about--has occasionally asked me very sweetly whether I could find more funny books for our students. J.T., this one's for you!

"We built countless ramps with old boards laid on barrels or boxes, at the bottom of a hill if possible, and we would try to jump over things with our bikes.

"Remember, these were one-speed fat-tired bikes with a crowned-up, castrating brace bar and the things we tried to jump were fences, wooden walls, barrels, bikes, each other. On one memorable occasion Alan--after carefully calculating distances and angles--tried to jump his stepfather's Ford coupe end to end. He didn't...quite...make it and left a face print on the windshield of the car, but that might have been because he was distracted by the scream when his mother came out just as we finished the ramp and Alan made his jump..."

Now, I can remember some of the "really neat stuff" we did when I was young: There was a telephone cable hanging from a wooden utility pole in this vacant lot filled with mounds of dirt left over from digging foundations in he neighborhood. It made for great swinging (à la George of the Jungle) until Jimmy Dean got a concussion by swinging straight into the pole. There was "skitching" --kids in Beatle boots grabbing onto the back bumper of any car that was cruising through the snow-slickened parking lot behind Modell's. I can also recall the thrill of aiming our banana bikes full speed over the edge and down the big drop-off at Sunshine Acres Park. But my sitting here today (in one piece) attests to the fact that I did NOT spend my impressionable years hanging out with Gary Paulsen and his buddies:

"Alan, again after carefully calculating and measuring..., decided that if you got up to twenty-six miles an hour and angled a ramp to ensure (that's how he put it, 'to ensure') that you got at least seven point six feet in the air, it was possible to do a complete backward somersault and land on your wheels upright. Alan, having gotten at least seven feet in the airafter a screaming run down Black Hill, landed exactly, perfectly upside down, bicycle wheels straight up, spinning, in a cloud of dust and gravel."

Decorating the cover of HOW ANGEL PETERSON GOT HIS NAME AND OTHER OUTRAGEOUS TALES ABOUT EXTREME SPORTS is an illustration of a young man on snow skis. He is wearing one of those old leather flight helmets (à la Snoopy) and flight goggles, and he is being pulled through the snow behind a sporty automobile that dates back to my father's adolescence. The young man is Angel Peterson who in 1954, inspired by a newsreel proceeding the Saturday matinee, decided he'd break the speed record for skiing despite being a thousand miles from any hills. Such was passion for scientific curiosity (and impressing girls) amid the "Brain Trust" that hung out with the young Gary Paulsen.

"Alan tried once more, getting a lift from an unsuspecting truck by hanging on to the rear corner and hitting the ramp so fast that it gave way and he went through it like a tank, barrels and boards and splinters flying everywhere."

"Wayne completed the only true backward flip off a bicycle but he didn't take the bike with him..."

Of course Shari, ever-the-mom, shakes her head, appalled by what I'm reading her from the book--a sure sign that this book will be absolutely worshiped by young boys. (Shari says that's why I like the book so much.) No, really, it's a book for girls, too. (Rosemary, who can tell you about trying to bounce through the air from the trampoline to the rope hanging from the tree, is going to love this one.) In fact, the only fault that I can find with the book is its size: One hundred and eleven pages is way too brief for so funny a book. Guess I'll just have to read it again...right after I take my government surplus target kite out in the next heavy wind and see if I can...

Richie Partington
BudNotBuddy@aol.com ( )

Who knew Gary Paulsen was funny? I've only read Hatchet before this book... ( )

"How Angel Peterson Got His Name" is a series of five short stories about author Gary Paulsen’s life as a thirteen-year-old boy growing up in small-town Minnesota in the early 1950’s. With nothing better to do, he and his friends Alan, Orvis, Angel and Wayne take up “stunting:” breaking the speed record on skis, attempting to jump cars on their bicycles, using an inner tube to bungee-jump from a barn loft and going over a waterfall in a pickle barrel.
The slightly-misleading mention of “extreme sports” on the cover will probably attract young readers, but the humor and fast pace of the stories will keep them hooked. Although girls may also enjoy this book, its target audience is 'tween and teen boys who have probably tried similar stunts “just to see what would happen.”
This book would be most enjoyed by kids ages 11-14, but some older teens would probably like it, too. I can also see this being a great book for fathers and sons to read together. ( )

Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel. ( )