Saving Winslow

Saving Winslow is something that Louie determines from the first moment he sights the quivering mini donkey in his father’s arms. While his mother might ask his father, ‘Why on earth did you bring it home if it might just die in a day or two?’ somehow, Louie knows. The donkey was meant for him.

Louie is missing his older brother Mack who’s in the army. News from Mack is scarce, and his big presence is very absent from Louie’s household. Furthermore, suddenly, his older friend Mack, with whom he used to sledge down the hill, reminds him, ‘I’m a teenager now, and I don’t feel like sledging.’ Suddenly, Louie is conscious of his alone-ness. Therefore, Saving Winslow becomes a mission, something he knows in his bones  he must and can do. Then again, Louie feels an association with Winslow that is greater. Maybe because he was ‘such a scrawny, birdlike thing’ when he was born, too. Further he is struggling still to discover just ‘what his thing is’. He knows it’s not sports. Can Winslow help him? Might Winslow help Nora, the strange girl who turns up, predicting Winslow’s demise, seemingly eager to spread her pessimism?What might Saving Winslow mean for her?

A Sharon Creech story offers readers an opportunity to be in the company of greatness. Saving Winslow is rather like the mini donkey in that it is gentle, engaging, miraculous and resolute. Bookwagon adores this book and recommends it to our readers highly.

Yet, what of the mini donkey? Is he as