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How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales about Extreme Sports
When you grow up in a small town in the north woods, you have to make your own excitement. High spirits, idiocy, and showing off for the girls inspire Gary Paulsen and his friends to attempt:
• Shooting waterfalls in a barrel • The first skateboarding • Jumping three barrels like motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel–except they only have bikes • Hangliding with an Army surplus target kite • Bungee jumping • Wrestling . . . a bear?
Extreme sports lead to extreme fun in new tales from Gary's boyhood.
• Shooting waterfalls in a barrel • The first skateboarding • Jumping three barrels like motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel–except they only have bikes • Hangliding with an Army surplus target kite • Bungee jumping • Wrestling . . . a bear?
Extreme sports lead to extreme fun in new tales from Gary's boyhood.
Author Biography: Gary Paulsen is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people. His most recent Delacorte books are Guts and Caught by the Sea.
111 pages, Paperback
First published January 14, 2003
64 people are currently reading
679 people want to read
About the author
Gary Paulsen
418 books3,923 followersGary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.
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July 11, 2020
Author Gary Paulsen dedicates this book “to all boys in their thirteenth year,” and adds, “the miracle is that we live through it.”
Oh, it is a miracle, indeed.
It is almost unbelievable what young Gary and friends like “Angel” Peterson, “Stinky” Parnell, and Orvis Orvisen got into, in their youth.
Mr. Paulsen was born in 1939, just 8 years before Stephen King, and I mention that, because I couldn't finish this work of non-fiction without thinking of King's bromance novella, “The Body," better known to most of us as "Stand By Me."
Paulsen was the son of “the town drunks,” who grew up in a remote corner of Northern Minnesota in the 1940s and 50s, and he and his friends experienced reckless childhoods that were so loaded with testosterone and so lacking in any common sense, you can't compare them to too many childhoods in the modern day.
It was a time of very few safety restrictions, no tv, and a lot of freedom, and the boys not only snickered, frequently, at various images of half-naked ladies and a premium dessert at the drugstore known as “Little Dicks” (ice cream, Coke, chocolate sauce, and, of course, nuts), they invented their own skateboards, luges, bungee jumps, hand gliders and “stunts.”
Good Lord. These boys didn't hesitate to participate in activities that would knock them unconscious, break their bones and scrape off half of their skin.
Most of their antics went right over my almost 10-year-old's head, but not one of them escaped the attention of my 12-year-old.
At one point, she stood up on her knees and almost shouted: MOM, BOYS ARE IN-SANE!!
Yes, honey. Yes they are.
Forget “middle grades read.” I can think of plenty of grown men, especially men over 40 who grew up in small towns, who would read these stories with a pang of nostalgia so bittersweet, they'd have goofy smiles glued to their faces the entire read.
Oh, it is a miracle, indeed.
It is almost unbelievable what young Gary and friends like “Angel” Peterson, “Stinky” Parnell, and Orvis Orvisen got into, in their youth.
Mr. Paulsen was born in 1939, just 8 years before Stephen King, and I mention that, because I couldn't finish this work of non-fiction without thinking of King's bromance novella, “The Body," better known to most of us as "Stand By Me."
Paulsen was the son of “the town drunks,” who grew up in a remote corner of Northern Minnesota in the 1940s and 50s, and he and his friends experienced reckless childhoods that were so loaded with testosterone and so lacking in any common sense, you can't compare them to too many childhoods in the modern day.
It was a time of very few safety restrictions, no tv, and a lot of freedom, and the boys not only snickered, frequently, at various images of half-naked ladies and a premium dessert at the drugstore known as “Little Dicks” (ice cream, Coke, chocolate sauce, and, of course, nuts), they invented their own skateboards, luges, bungee jumps, hand gliders and “stunts.”
Good Lord. These boys didn't hesitate to participate in activities that would knock them unconscious, break their bones and scrape off half of their skin.
Most of their antics went right over my almost 10-year-old's head, but not one of them escaped the attention of my 12-year-old.
At one point, she stood up on her knees and almost shouted: MOM, BOYS ARE IN-SANE!!
Yes, honey. Yes they are.
Forget “middle grades read.” I can think of plenty of grown men, especially men over 40 who grew up in small towns, who would read these stories with a pang of nostalgia so bittersweet, they'd have goofy smiles glued to their faces the entire read.
January 6, 2020
How Angel Peterson Got His Name is one of many Gary Paulsen memoirs. Woodsong, My Life in Dog Years, and Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers are only three of the author's books about his own life that are considered among his finest works. Unlike most Paulsen memoirs, though, How Angel Peterson Got His Name deals exclusively in adventures that befell the author as a preteen and early adolescent, an age when he and his friends spent much of their time trying to see who could pull off the craziest stunt without dying. This fearless attitude has led to great breakthroughs in history...as well as more epic failures than one can enumerate. The book begins with Carl Peterson, a kid Paulsen knew growing up in icy northern Minnesota of the 1940s and '50s. After watching a newsreel about a man breaking the world speed record on skis—seventy-four miles per hour—Carl gets the idea to break that mark himself. All he needs is a wide open area, some help to hook himself to the bumper of an automobile, and an older friend willing to drive it with Carl hanging off the back. Carl, Paulsen, and their friends convince a local teen named Archie Swenson to drive, and amazingly, the attempt at the record goes according to plan...until it hits a potentially deadly snag. But how did Carl Peterson come to be known as "Angel"? The reveal is on the story's last page.
The Miracle of Flight is our second reminiscence, about another of Paulsen's friends at that age, Emil (pronounced "Eee-mull"). Emil is tightfisted with a dollar, but invests a large amount of cash to buy a target kite from the army surplus store. The massive apparatus is too big to fly by himself, but with the guys helping, Emil gets it off the ground early one summer day. Unfortunately, an unruly wind rips the kite out of their hands, with only Emil left hanging on. The kite carries him eighty feet in the air and higher, over barns and treetops, before sinking low enough for him to let go and abandon the ride. Every other boy in their group of friends let go immediately, but Emil couldn't bring himself to part ways with the expensive kite. Orvis Orvisen and the Crash and Bash is next, in which we meet a regrettably named kid with a debilitating fear of talking to girls. Several anecdotes illustrate Orvis's offbeat way of thinking, from his method of "bullying" himself to his propensity for daredevil stunts. All of Paulsen's friends have the latter tendency, but Orvis's ability to ignore common sense when he really wants to is in a class by itself.
We return to the subject of the opposite sex in Girls, and the Circle of Death. Paulsen and Orvis have shared an inability to speak with girls since childhood, but adolescence exacerbates the problem. Paulsen recalls his own first date, with a girl named Eileen. Knowing he'd never work up the nerve to ask her personally, he uses back channels to propose the date, and miraculously, Eileen accepts. Paulsen is too overwhelmed that evening to make anything but a weird impression on her, but at least his first date is behind him. Orvis deals with his own terminal shyness toward girls by upping the ante on his dangerous stunts, risking his life if he thinks it might impress them. That's how he winds up wrestling a bear named Bruno at the county fair. Fairs in those days featured bizarre attractions—if you want more on that, read the author's Tiltawhirl John or The Beet Fields—and one of these attractions is the Circle of Death. A trained bear—Bruno—will wrestle any customer who pays twenty-five cents. If they stay in the pit with him for one minute, they earns twenty-five dollars. Orvis isn't the most likely person to outlast Bruno, but a bit of half-formed strategy and a young female audience spur him to accomplish what none of the county's brawny farmhands could. Not every ill-advised stunt ends in disaster. The final chapter of this book is a hodgepodge of quick recollections from the author's youth: hitching fast rides by grabbing the back of a car on a skateboard, jumping a bike through a fiery hoop, and curling up inside a box filled with lit firecrackers. There's even a story about his cousin Harris, the title character from Paulsen's Harris and Me, when Paulsen is ten and Harris only eight. You'd best keep an eye out for wasp nests when bungee jumping from the second floor of a barn. Many of the tricks Paulsen and his friends tried as kids were foolish, bordering on psychotic, but the spirit of adventure remained part of him into adulthood. It led to his most captivating personal stories.
In contrast to some of Gary Paulsen's memoirs, humor trumps emotion in How Angel Peterson Got His Name. There's nothing here equivalent to the pathos of Paulsen's interactions with Storm or Cookie, two of his favorite sled dogs. I had fun, however, going back in time to an era when growing up was a different experience. Paulsen's friends were as memorable as any of his fictional characters. I'd probably rate How Angel Peterson Got His Name two and a half stars, and if you're a fan of the author's comedy, you shouldn't miss this book. It's some of his funniest material.
The Miracle of Flight is our second reminiscence, about another of Paulsen's friends at that age, Emil (pronounced "Eee-mull"). Emil is tightfisted with a dollar, but invests a large amount of cash to buy a target kite from the army surplus store. The massive apparatus is too big to fly by himself, but with the guys helping, Emil gets it off the ground early one summer day. Unfortunately, an unruly wind rips the kite out of their hands, with only Emil left hanging on. The kite carries him eighty feet in the air and higher, over barns and treetops, before sinking low enough for him to let go and abandon the ride. Every other boy in their group of friends let go immediately, but Emil couldn't bring himself to part ways with the expensive kite. Orvis Orvisen and the Crash and Bash is next, in which we meet a regrettably named kid with a debilitating fear of talking to girls. Several anecdotes illustrate Orvis's offbeat way of thinking, from his method of "bullying" himself to his propensity for daredevil stunts. All of Paulsen's friends have the latter tendency, but Orvis's ability to ignore common sense when he really wants to is in a class by itself.
We return to the subject of the opposite sex in Girls, and the Circle of Death. Paulsen and Orvis have shared an inability to speak with girls since childhood, but adolescence exacerbates the problem. Paulsen recalls his own first date, with a girl named Eileen. Knowing he'd never work up the nerve to ask her personally, he uses back channels to propose the date, and miraculously, Eileen accepts. Paulsen is too overwhelmed that evening to make anything but a weird impression on her, but at least his first date is behind him. Orvis deals with his own terminal shyness toward girls by upping the ante on his dangerous stunts, risking his life if he thinks it might impress them. That's how he winds up wrestling a bear named Bruno at the county fair. Fairs in those days featured bizarre attractions—if you want more on that, read the author's Tiltawhirl John or The Beet Fields—and one of these attractions is the Circle of Death. A trained bear—Bruno—will wrestle any customer who pays twenty-five cents. If they stay in the pit with him for one minute, they earns twenty-five dollars. Orvis isn't the most likely person to outlast Bruno, but a bit of half-formed strategy and a young female audience spur him to accomplish what none of the county's brawny farmhands could. Not every ill-advised stunt ends in disaster. The final chapter of this book is a hodgepodge of quick recollections from the author's youth: hitching fast rides by grabbing the back of a car on a skateboard, jumping a bike through a fiery hoop, and curling up inside a box filled with lit firecrackers. There's even a story about his cousin Harris, the title character from Paulsen's Harris and Me, when Paulsen is ten and Harris only eight. You'd best keep an eye out for wasp nests when bungee jumping from the second floor of a barn. Many of the tricks Paulsen and his friends tried as kids were foolish, bordering on psychotic, but the spirit of adventure remained part of him into adulthood. It led to his most captivating personal stories.
In contrast to some of Gary Paulsen's memoirs, humor trumps emotion in How Angel Peterson Got His Name. There's nothing here equivalent to the pathos of Paulsen's interactions with Storm or Cookie, two of his favorite sled dogs. I had fun, however, going back in time to an era when growing up was a different experience. Paulsen's friends were as memorable as any of his fictional characters. I'd probably rate How Angel Peterson Got His Name two and a half stars, and if you're a fan of the author's comedy, you shouldn't miss this book. It's some of his funniest material.
May 2, 2013
This week I started and finished the book How Angle Peterson Got His Name by Gary Paulson. This book is about the childhood of Gary and his friends that end up doing some crazy things like fighting a bear, a real bear, for a minute just to impress a girl they all like bungee jumping through a wasps nest and so many other crazy things. I have never done anything like this in my life, as you could probably imagine. Although I would bet that my dad and uncle would have done things like this when they were younger. This is probably a fast paced book because you don't really get top know the characters that well. Even thought I can't relate to this book it is still a wonderfully funny book that I would give five stars!*****
July 23, 2022
I hadn't read this book since I taught fourth grade, which means at least six years ago. I remembered it as being hilarious. I wasn't disappointed.
I love Paulsen's memoirs because they are always hilarious and believable even while making your eyes widen with incredulity and your breath catch a little, caught between worry and laughter. I think I love this book even more because it reminds me of my husband and his brother. No, they didn't have these same adventures, but they would have been up for them. My guys, instead, had races to see who could unspool a toilet paper roll to the end. The catch is that the toilet paper is on fire and you can only use one finger on each hand for the unspooling. The boys also threw knives at each other's bare feet, and swam among water moccasins during their Tennessee childhood. Oh, the stories! They have since introduced their daughters, mothers, and wives to the pleasures of toilet paper fire races. ... I wouldn't want to raise my daughter any other way.
I love Paulsen's memoirs because they are always hilarious and believable even while making your eyes widen with incredulity and your breath catch a little, caught between worry and laughter. I think I love this book even more because it reminds me of my husband and his brother. No, they didn't have these same adventures, but they would have been up for them. My guys, instead, had races to see who could unspool a toilet paper roll to the end. The catch is that the toilet paper is on fire and you can only use one finger on each hand for the unspooling. The boys also threw knives at each other's bare feet, and swam among water moccasins during their Tennessee childhood. Oh, the stories! They have since introduced their daughters, mothers, and wives to the pleasures of toilet paper fire races. ... I wouldn't want to raise my daughter any other way.
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May 12, 2017great book. super funny. teaches you a lesson not to be stupid the things you do.
April 5, 2017
this book was easy. so easy that it took me 2 hours. i Thought that this book was hilarious. I recommend it for people who want a very easy read or to laugh.
January 9, 2013
Why do you think Angel Peterson? Well you can find out in the book. Angel's actual name was Carl but at the age of 13 he was never called by Carl Peterson again well because he did some pretty crazy stuff like Schoening off a waterfall and Barrel, Breaking the world speed record on skis, Hang gliding with army surplus target Kite, Inventing the skateboard, wrestling With a bear And other outrageous tale about extreme sports.Gary the Author made this book really cool because it actually related to his life and definitely mine because I always do crazy stuff. I suggest this book to boys that like humor/adventure books.
After he broke the world speed record on skis there was hang gliding involved.Emil someone in the book hang glided of
a military base and landed In a chicken coop. it kinda reminds me of the time when I jumped of a fence and landed on my brother and a pile of mulch. This part of the book or chapter is really funny because the book puts a lot of description into the book.
Chapter 5 is called "And finally, Skateboards, Bungee Jumping, and other failures!" It's really funny because they had to make all or most of their things and we can just go to the store and buy what we need or want. This also is related to my life a little bit. All of this book reminds me of me when I was younger trying to do the impossible and be all cool but anyways I give this book 4 stars.
After he broke the world speed record on skis there was hang gliding involved.Emil someone in the book hang glided of
a military base and landed In a chicken coop. it kinda reminds me of the time when I jumped of a fence and landed on my brother and a pile of mulch. This part of the book or chapter is really funny because the book puts a lot of description into the book.
Chapter 5 is called "And finally, Skateboards, Bungee Jumping, and other failures!" It's really funny because they had to make all or most of their things and we can just go to the store and buy what we need or want. This also is related to my life a little bit. All of this book reminds me of me when I was younger trying to do the impossible and be all cool but anyways I give this book 4 stars.
January 16, 2013
12/14/12
I am currently reading the book How Angel Peterson Got His Name By: Gary Paulsen. The book is about a 13 year old boy named Carl and he did a lot of crazy things. One of the crazy things he did was to try to break the speed record on skis; he had to go seventy-four miles an hour to break the record. But there was one problem there were no hills near by so he couldn't get any speed, but Carl said "I don't need any hills all I need is a car." They went to go buy all of the gear so he wouldn't get hurt. If you want to know if he did break the speed record on skis you will just have to read the book. Another crazy thing Carl did was pee on an electric fence so he got electrocuted and did a back flip!
I can relate to this book because my cousin is always pushing things to the limit like when someone tells him to do something and he will do it the more fun but dangerous way. He doesn't really think before he does something. I was falling out of my chair because this book was so funny. I really recommend this book to you if you like funny books.
August 30, 2020
By the time I bounced over the bonnet of a moving Austin Allegro when I was eight (absolutely the unsexiest car with which to experience a brush with death) and landed head first on the road, giving myself a pretty good scar on my left temple in the process, I had used up a few of my nine lives already. I'd fallen from a first floor balcony, almost drowned in a swimming pool in Spain, very nearly fallen out of a window onto concrete twenty feet below while doing a Popeye the Sailor Man impersonation, and plummeted from the branches of a spruce tree after climbing way too high. My antics are pretty tame in comparison with the mayhem gotten up to by the boys Gary Paulsen grew up with though. They're equal parts hilarious and hair-raising. I'm not really sure what it is about boys, but we just seem to think 'I wonder what would happen if...' way too often. My boy is five, and so far we've only had one trip to A&E, for a fairly minor incident. I'm hoping it stays that way, but the odds are not great...
January 9, 2013
I recently read the book How Angel Peterson Got His Name by: Gary Paulsen. I loved this book because it's so hilarious. It was hilarious because in one part of the book one of Gary Paulsen's friends rides a parachute into a pig pen and gets caked with mud. Throughout most of the book Gary Paulsen and his friends are doing daring things like riding a parachute through the air and doing stunts on their bikes with ramps. I think Gary Paulsen did a great job writing this book because he described things very well like how the roads in winter were snowed over in winter. My favorite part was when one of Gary Paulsen's friends rode a parachute into a chicken coop and got covered in chicken poop and also managed to break his ankle. The genre of this book is autobiography. I would give this book 5 stars and would recommend this book to everyone.
December 1, 2009
Angel Peterson, Gary Paulsen, and their friends tried a number of daredevil stunts in their thirteenth year, and they are chronicled in hilarious detail in this book. Have you ever wondered what could happen if you tried to ski while tied to the bumper of a car? What about shooting a waterfall in a barrel, or wrestling a bear? Gary Paulsen's stories of his youth describe a time when the Army/Navy store had target kites that could be used for hang gliding and circuses had tents where you could pay a quarter to wrestle a trained bear. This is an excellent book for young readers looking for an approachable, funny book. Recommended for ages 9 to 13.
December 8, 2020
Laugh out loud funny! I read this out loud to my husband while we were traveling over the weekend. We both split a gut. There were times I was laughing so hard I couldn't keep reading for the tears. It reminds me of sitting around listening to my dad and uncles swapping stories about when they were young and stupid and relating some of the crazy things they did to keep entertained. My husband could also relate, and I'm sure my son could too.
November 27, 2008
A mother of three boys recommended this book to me. Such a funny book about boys and their seriously shocking ability to make it to adulthood. My husband (who had his share of dangerous adventures growing up) read it and loved it too. Laugh out loud funny. This book will stay safely shelved until my son is thirty - I don't want him getting any ideas. The girls can read it all they want.
November 23, 2012
Laugh-out loud funny! This is a very quick read about the goofy stunts of the author's childhood friends--some of which I will probably remember for a very long time. My wife and I loved it.
October 22, 2013
Hilarious! Gary Paulsen uses the most vivid language. I get a great picture in my head from his stories!
February 26, 2019
17 December 2002 HOW ANGEL PETERSON GOT HIS NAME AND OTHER OUTRAGEOUS TALES ABOUT EXTREME SPORTSby 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 air after 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, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
[email protected]
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 air after 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, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
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March 13, 2019
The book that I read for my book review is How Angel Peterson got his name by Gary Paulsen. In my opinion this book was fun to read although I was doing it for an assignment. This book also kept me wanting to read more and it kept me interested in what was going on in the book. How Angel Peterson Got His Name was about the author, Gary Paulsen and his friend, Carl “Angel” Peterson, and what they did during their childhood growing up in northern Minnesota as they went on wild adventures when they were just kids. In this book the author talks about most of the bold stunts him and his friends pulled off when they were only about 12 years old. For instance, in the story it talked about a stunt that Gary Paulsen tired where he attempted to ride over a river in a covered wooden pickle barrel, where he almost drowned. The author and his friends did all types of tricks like these. They also wrestled a bear, flew over a barn on a kite string, and his friend Carl also broke the world record for speed on skies.
What is the genre of this book? The book’s genre falls under, biography, preteen/young adult memoir, and nonfiction. This book is a biography because it talked about the life of Gary Paulsen who is the author of this book, and his friend Carl “Angel” Peterson. I also think that this book falls under pre-teen and young adult, because the book cannot really relate or reach out to kids under the age of 10, because it talks about what Paulsen and his friends did when he was at the age of 10-13, like how they listened to certain music on the radio that the average 7 or 8 year old wouldn’t listen to.
Where is the setting in this book? The story takes place in southern Minnesota in the 1950s, back then in Minnesota, there were no TVs, so on Sunday’s they would go listen to the radio and hang out with some of their older friends. The book also had different settings throughout the book, like where Gary and Carl were at the river and were about to go down in a berall. These are some of the different settings in the book.
What is the genre of this book? The book’s genre falls under, biography, preteen/young adult memoir, and nonfiction. This book is a biography because it talked about the life of Gary Paulsen who is the author of this book, and his friend Carl “Angel” Peterson. I also think that this book falls under pre-teen and young adult, because the book cannot really relate or reach out to kids under the age of 10, because it talks about what Paulsen and his friends did when he was at the age of 10-13, like how they listened to certain music on the radio that the average 7 or 8 year old wouldn’t listen to.
Where is the setting in this book? The story takes place in southern Minnesota in the 1950s, back then in Minnesota, there were no TVs, so on Sunday’s they would go listen to the radio and hang out with some of their older friends. The book also had different settings throughout the book, like where Gary and Carl were at the river and were about to go down in a berall. These are some of the different settings in the book.
November 24, 2018
Great book for boys 4-6th (or even 7th) grade. Action packed adventures of boys growing up in the 1950's-1960's. Gary, Ala, Wayne, Angel, Orvis and even Archie feel like fiction characters as they tell their unlikely stunts. Stories about Angel Peterson "skiing" behind a car going 82mph to break a world record, when in reality he was tied to the rope with his glove stuck in the thumbs up position. His friends thought he was doing great. Next, Emil pays $11 for a kite so he can "glide/fly." This story has lots of background information about silk parachutes and WWII that students may need to more information on to fully appreciate the story. Orvis -horribly named- is a daredevil of all sorts fighting a bear, jumping through a fire hoop on his bike and beating himself up before the bullies could get to him. This section is all about impressing girls, and has a little bit of racing language p. 100. These boys even hitch rides on their skateboards on the bumpers of cars! Finally, we hear from Harris - cousin from Harris and Me- and his bungee jumping barn incident. Overall, this story shows adolescent boys using their imaginations. Actively trying new things and being curious. (Not something you see kids trying today. What does that say for the inventors of the future?)
December 30, 2017
This is a short set of stories of boys doing dangerous things. He mentions "Harris and Me" which I enjoyed/was horrified by. The things boys used to do when unsupervised! They were almost always unsupervised! I don't know who the intended reader is for this book. I don't think most 13-year-old boys will see the humor in these shenanigans. Can't believe they survived these crazy ideas. He tells about some crazy things he and his friends did while growing up. One of his friends wrestled with a bear! Paulsen has a great voice, so this was a nice, fun easy read.
September 2, 2020
Gary Paulsen gives us an absolutely hilarious account of all the reasons he and his friends—with help from the army surplus store and a healthy dose of scientific curiosity—should never have lived to be fifteen. It’s a short, quick read, and I laughed all the way through, punctuated with occasional squirms and shudders. The attempted invention of bungee jumping in the last chapter was perhaps my favorite episode, but there were a lot of real doozies.
February 2, 2018
I wouldn’t/ couldn’t use this book for a read aloud in my 3rd grade class, but I do think most 9 to 11 yr olds would like it. As an adult, I loved it. It’s laugh out loud til you cry funny in a few parts and an easy read, with a little cultural history to be learned too. Maybe there were a few events and descriptions reminiscent of my own growing up years in rural Wisconsin.
February 13, 2020
I loved this book. I snorted, I giggled, I guffawed.
I recommended it to students and they find it just as much fun to read. I have recommended it to adults and they love it.
Paulsen gets kids. He understands the art of never growing old, of enjoying life, of being a little kid in a big body.
This book is tremendous fun. I highly recommend it.
I recommended it to students and they find it just as much fun to read. I have recommended it to adults and they love it.
Paulsen gets kids. He understands the art of never growing old, of enjoying life, of being a little kid in a big body.
This book is tremendous fun. I highly recommend it.
December 23, 2016
Frankly one of the best knee-slappers I've read with an adult's perspective on what it is to remember being a kid who's had to say, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." I gave it to my 85 year old dad to read, and he got as big a kick out of it (and a trek down memory lane) as I did.
January 29, 2020
Screamingly funny--even the preface written by the author. Considering that these are feats that he and his pals tried while growing up, it's amazing that Gary Paulsen lived to write so many wonderful books.
March 31, 2021
This is the crazy adventures of a bunch of boys. Very funny and entertaining, but crazy stories of what these kids did to keep themselves busy. As a parent of a boy more than a bit scary. Luckily they all lived to tell the tales.
February 2, 2024
HILARIOUS!! This book was pure entertainment the made me laugh out loud. The author has an amazing way of weaving a story so you feel like you could have been there. I had tears roll down my cheeks more than once and my daughter loved it just as much.
December 25, 2017
Gary Paulsen at his best, in my humble opinion. It's laugh-out-loud funny and also incredibly well written.
May 12, 2017
This was a great and funny book
August 4, 2017
This is a more obscure Paulsen book, but it was recommended by another ELA teacher. Charming and cute, this will be right up many middle school boys' alley. Ben loved it!
October 3, 2017
It's a pretty lit teenage boy book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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