Book 1 Project: Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Yeehaw! Hello everybody and welcome to this meeting about Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. So, everybody settle down and get ready to cowboy up because here we go. So, we all know that Half-Broke Horses is the story of Jeannette’s grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. By the time she’s age 11, she can break horses, help her siblings, and run a ranch better than almost any adult around. The current audience for this book tends to be people who enjoy life stories. In order to extend the audience of this fine book, I propose that we build a replica of the KC Ranch where Lily lived out much of her childhood and where she developed a free, tenacious attitude that lasted the rest of her life and also became apparent in granddaughter Jeannette.

Building the KC Ranch as well as other buildings from Lily’s life will attract all different kinds of people. As Lily puts it herself, “I took on the hiring and overseeing. (Walls 35). This replica would include a barn, a corral with horses, and other pieces of equipment in the barn so that people can get a better idea of what life was like for Lily. There would be other buildings that were significant to Lily’s life such as a dugout and a schoolhouse where she worked for the majority of her life. “ Red Lake had a one-room schoolhouse with an oil stove in a corner, a desk for the teacher, a row of benches for the kids, and a black slateboard (Walls 62)”. This would attract people who enjoy history because they would get the opportunity to see how people lived back in the era of the Great Depression. On the ranch replica, it would also be interesting to have actors and actresses pretend to be Lily and her family. These actors would have knowledge on their backgrounds so that visitors would be able to have conversations with the characters of the book. Polls have shown that people become more engaged with a novel or any sort of production when they can relate to the characters in some way.

Having all of these different components, while seeming to be completely jumbled together, will actually create a very popular tourist attraction because it has something for EVERYONE! There will be the historical aspect for adults and readers who enjoy non-fiction, there will be the opportunity to ride the horses for the kids and other animal enthusiasts and of course, there will be a small gift shop where our guests can pick up souvenirs that they will treasure for the rest of their life. In this gift shop, there will be a section where people can buy Jeannette Walls other works and hopefully, where we can incorporate a few book signings.

While building this replica is a risk, this is the best idea out of any that have been presented today because everyone will have something that they will like about it. When our guests see this place, they will want to ride off into the wild, Wild West for the rest of their young lives. Here’s hoping that our guests will forever go west!

What is a Book?

In my mind, a book is a way to defy reality. In books, you can see magic, travel through time, embark on unbelievable adventures, and come to know some of the most famous people in history. I think that Joe Meno is right when he discusses the idea that books can take any form that the reader wants. Just take a look at all of the different types of readers there are! Some people prefer reading biographies about historical figures while other people might prefer stories about someone being attacked by a monster that hides in a closet. 

To me, a book has to be relatable to the reader whether it's through a memory, a similar experience, or a character. A book should be like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter's day. A book should be able to warm your soul and make you feel emotions as you read it. I also think that a book needs to have an actual hard-back cover with a picture. I really enjoy being able to look at a cover because I can see a character or figure out how the cover relates to the book. But sometimes, I just like to look at the pictures because they are pretty or interesting. A recent example is when I read Nightshade (Which I highly recommend). The cover shows the main character Calla holding a bouquet of lilies spattered with blood. The lilies are significant because Lily is Calla's nickname and they are spattered with blood because Calla is not afraid to fight someone to protect her pack. Calla also has strange yellow eyes on the cover because she can transform into a wolf (very cool)!

As I was reading the quotes from these people, I hated Victor LaValle's opinion about books vs. e-readers. I don't buy physical books just because I know that someone's spent months writing it! I buy physical books because I enjoy having something that serves as an escape from the technology that takes over a large part of my life. I find something comforting and magical about an actual book opposed to a Kindle. I really like Nancy Jo Sales's opinion because she agrees with me about how books are better than Kindles.