{"id":1408,"date":"2018-12-31T17:06:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2018-12-31T17:06:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:06:18","slug":"glenn-dromgooles-texas-reads-column-appears-weekly-at-lonestarliterary-com-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1408","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

8.19.2018\u00a0 Middle-school boys set off on great adventure<\/h1>\n

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<\/a><\/span><\/span>Lubbock author Nathan Dahlstrom writes outdoor adventure stories<\/span> for middle grade boys under the pen name S. J. Dahlstrom<\/span>. Black Rock Brothers<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Paul Dry Books, $9.95 paperback) is the fifth book in \u201cThe Adventures of Wilder Good\u201d series.<\/p>\n

Wilder, now 13, dreams of taking a summer camping trip into the wild by himself, living off the land for maybe a month or even longer.<\/p>\n

Well, his parents are not too keen on that idea. They want to nurture his interest in outdoor exploration \u2014 much better than sitting around playing video games, after all \u2014 but they\u2019re not about to let their son go off on a trip into the Colorado wilderness by himself. He can go, but he must take his best friend, Big, and a satellite phone so they can stay in touch.<\/p>\n

Wilder\u2019s mother requests that he also take the new foster kid in school who goes by the name of Corndog. Wilder doesn\u2019t want to, but out of respect for his mother he reluctantly agrees.<\/p>\n

Wilder, Big and Corndog set off on their adventure, and what a time it turns out to be as they have to rely on their knowledge, instincts, and courage to overcome one challenge after another.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Wilder and Big realize there is a lot more to Corndog\u2019s story than they ever imagined, and his newly acquired Boy Scout skills also come in handy. Two friends become three.<\/p>\n

Dahlstrom\u2019s Wilder Good books \u2014 a sixth is in the works \u2014 are wholesome, action-oriented stories that encourage boys to learn about their environment, respect others, and read good books. Dahlstrom, a Lubbock middle-school teacher who ran a boys ranch for several years, says the Wilder Good character is based to some extent on his own thoughts and experiences as a 12-year-old<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHopefully these books relate gentle learning experiences in the outdoors and with animals and with older people that formed the basis of my upbringing,\u201d he says. \u201cI hope kids discover that real adventure is waiting for them outside their front door and that they are not dumb or uncool for saving up for a new saddle, knife, or fishing pole instead of the latest iPhone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other four books in the series have garnered awards and high praise \u2014 and each can be read as a standalone. Books one and three are set in Colorado, where Wilder lives with his parents and sister. Books two and four take place in Texas, on his grandfather\u2019s ranch. Book four, The Green Colt,<\/span> won the 2017 Wrangler Western Heritage Award for Juvenile Book and was a finalist for the Spur Award.<\/p>\n

Black Rock Brothers,<\/span> in my opinion, is the best one yet.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

>> Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 8.19.2018\u00a0 Middle-school boys set off on great adventure Lubbock author Nathan Dahlstrom writes outdoor adventure stories for middle grade boys under the pen name S. J. Dahlstrom. Black Rock Brothers (Paul Dry Books, $9.95 paperback) is the fifth book in \u201cThe Adventures of Wilder Good\u201d series. Wilder, now 13, dreams of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}