Book title and series:
The Boss on Redemption Road, Hometown Hunters Series
Written by:
Lane Walker, 2014
Genre:
Fiction, Action & Adventure
Topic:
Sports, Recreation-Hunting
Book Length:
170 pages
Awards:
Bronze Moonbeam Children's Book Award
Main Character(s):
Hunter
Crazy Kate (secondary character)
Introduction:
The Boss on Redemption Road is the fourth book of Lane Walker’s hunting book series. This wonderfully entertaining adventure story in the award-winning series, is the perfect book for any eight to fourteen-year-old. Walker captures the reader's attention by giving each chapter of this book a descriptive and imaginative narrative, making it another book in the series an interesting and fun read. Walker does a fantastic job creating the story line in The Boss for Redemption Road, featuring the story of a young boy who is obsessed with video games. In a world where screen-time is strongly favored among children, and even adults, this book is a guaranteed screen-time break that will offer young readers amusement with the adventure and life experiences learned throughout the 170 pages in the book.
Book Summary:
Hunter’s main hobbies are video games, video games, and more video games. When he no longer can rely on his games, it becomes a struggle for him that will turn out to be a major blessing in disguise. The Boss on Redemption Road tells the story from Hunter’s view on his experiences after his family moves to the small town of Pine Bluff, Colorado. In this lighthearted adventure book, Hunter along with other characters in the book, will have to overcome certain obstacles that unfold an unexpected ending as well as leave readers with a great message to take away. In this chapter book, it illustrates how Hunter learns more than just how to adapt to the big change, he will also learn and experience more in the small town of Pine Bluff than he ever did in the big city of Denver.
Character Details:
Video game obsessed sixth-grader Hunter was fine staying indoors and playing games as a way of entertainment for himself. Being more of a loner, video games were his source of fun and activity, so saying goodbye to his old school and classmates wasn’t all that hard for him. As Hunter struggles to adjust to his new hometown, a broken video game controller may have been the best thing to happen to him. Trying to earn money for a new controller, Hunter finds himself working at his neighbor Crazy Kate’s farm. Crazy Kate isn’t the friendliest old-lady...unless you are one of her animals. With not having the best reputation around town, she lives up to this expectation, especially in Hunter’s eyes. Snapping at him, and even teasing Hunter at times, she is the last person he wanted to be around. It would take the story of a legendary elk to help chip away Hunter’s “city-boy” self, and uncover new interests, and friends he never knew he would gain. An unlikely friendship and appreciation grow between Crazy Kate and Hunter, which will ultimately take the both of them on a hunt the two of them, and the rest of the town, on an adventure no one would forget.
Plot Details:
Hunter’s world seems to be crashing down on him when he is forced to move from Denver to Pine Bluff, Colorado. Growing up as a city boy, who kept to himself, Hunter no longer can hide in his room with his video games. As he adapts to his new life in the small hunting town, he begins to grow a new and unexpected fascination for the outdoors. Realizing that he lives on the very road where a legendary elk referred to as Boss supposedly lives, this brings out a new and unexpected venture for the city boy. Boss was known to be one of the biggest, most wanted elk, and he happened to live right on Crazy Kate’s 180-acre land. As Hunter begins working on Crazy Kate’s farm, something begins to change within himself. As he starts to gain Kate’s trust, Hunter musters up the confidence to convince her that they need to go out and hunt for Boss. Every year the town holds an Elk hunting competition, and Hunter knows exactly how to win. After convincing Kate that together, they can win the competition, they set out for their hunt down the valley. Scoring the massive elk would change not only Hunter’s and Kate’s lives, but it would forever change the entire town of Pine Bluff, and teach every single person a much valuable and necessary lesson.
Evaluation & Conclusion:
An amazing story with an even more important message within, The Boss on Redemption Road was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. The book does a wonderful way of portraying and narrating Hunter’s character development throughout the book. With a different tone to this book, being that it isn’t solely surrounded by a hunting adventure, the story instead offers a different story-line to it that focuses mainly on the character, and how a small town, a neighbor, and a legendary elk, would change his life forever. I would highly recommend this book to any adventure loving reader. This book contains a different story within it, with how it does not have the main focus on a hunt. Rather, the story about an outcast boy coming to his own, and learning more about himself, and others along the way, that would lead up to the adventure of a lifetime.
