Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Wetherbys Book Project -- Historical Fiction


Kennedy Smith B7/B3  Ms. Dorsey
Book: The Wetherbys
Author: G. Clifton Wisier is the author of the book “The Wetherbys.”
Pages: There are 185 pages in the book “The Wetherbys.”


Five Facts from the book “The Wetherbys”
1. The Spring Creek that they mentioned in the book is a real place located in Texas
in Harris and Montgomery County. It is in the Southeast part of Texas. Spring Creek
is about 284 square miles and about 60 square miles of that 284 square miles is in
Harris County. Part of Spring Creek also connects with the West fork of the San
Juan River. In the book “The Wetherbys” the main characters father, (Joe) was
trying to build a dam in Spring Creek. When he was doing so, his leg got caught
between rocks and was later infected. The infection caused a horrible fever that
eventually led to death.
HCFCD - Harris County Flood Control District. www.bing.com/cr?
“Projects & Studies.” HCFCD - Spring Creek, www.hcfcd.org/projects-studies/spring-creek/.
2. In the book “The Wetherbys” they are being chased by the Kiowa Indians.
The Indians live in Texas just around where Jake and his friends (the main
characters in the book) were trying to catch some horses for easier travel
and to sell them for money. The Kiowa Tribe really did live in Texas.
They spoke a language called Tanoan. There was a story that the Kiowa people
told of a boy and girl that were being chased by a giant bear. The two children
climbed to the top of Butte to escape. The bear clawed at the wall trying to reach
the children. If you look at the picture below there are still claw marks from the bear,
and that is where the name came from!
The Kiowa Indians, Texas Indians, www.texasindians.com/kiowa.htm.
3. The main characters went to herd Longhorns. Longhorns really
are a type of cow that did need to be gathered and herded to be sold.
In real life, it was a hard, dangerous job just like in the book.
A Longhorn was considered mature at the age of ten.
When they were ten they weighed about 1,200 pounds! In the book
when they went herding for Longhorns they had to have men on horses
circling the herd. They did that so they would not have stragglers.
They also found that a good way to get the cattle to move was to yell
and scream to scare them. Doing that they would also have to whack
the cattle on the behind to get them moving.
“Texas Longhorns: A Short History.” HistoryNet, 8 Aug. 2016,
www.historynet.com/texas-longhorns-a-short-history.htm.
4. It was the wild west out there. They had people dying all the time.
In the book they had so many people dying from many things.
One of the common things was the fever. The fever is a real thing that did kill many people.
Thank goodness that we have the technology that we have today. We still have deaths from
fevers, but not as many. The fever can be caused by infections. The father (in the book)
died from a fever that was caused by an infection in the leg.
“Fever/Infection.” Txo, www.texasoncology.com/cancer-treatment/side-effects-of-cancer-treatment
/common-side-effects/feverinfection/.
5. One main source that people got their food was hunting. Jake and his brothers went
hunting and came back with a deer. They could have shot another deer but they
decided that they had enough and that they could leave it to someone else.
They still had meat for a long time. They hunted deer a lot. Look at the picture below
and see if you can see the two deer in the red circles.
See the source image

Imagine having to find these deer and spot them! It would be a hard job.
Back then they hunted for livelihood. Now the area we live in it’s more for sport and food.
For example, there is the Red Stag Hunt that many people enjoy and participate in which
is held in Texas. In some areas in the world, they may do it for survival still.


David. “Red Stag Hunting | 18,000 Acres in Texas | 60 Species.” OX Ranch, 10 Feb. 2014,
www.oxhuntingranch.com/texas/red-stag-hunting/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&
utm_campaign=Animal Hunting&utm_term=guided red stag hunts&utm_content=
Red Stag Hunting.


What Makes the Book Fiction

What makes my book fiction is that the main characters are not real. Jake (the main character)was not real so there was no person to do the things he did. I liked the story
but it was super slow like a lot of nonfiction and historical fiction books.
I knew the dad was going to die way before he did and it was annoying that the author (G. Clifton Wisier) dragged it on for forever.


Comparing and Contrasting Reading Fiction with Reading Nonfiction

I prefer to read a fiction book. The reason why is because fiction is way less boring
than a nonfiction book. Fiction books are not real, meaning you don’t feel as bad
for the characters because it is not real. Historical fiction is okay but I would not read
it unless it was assignment or suggested by family or friends. Nonfiction I would not
read unless it was an assignment. Fiction on the other hand is way more interesting
and exciting because I don’t have to feel like I am one of the characters.
I hate the feeling of being one of the characters or having their trials in my life,
but I do like seeing them live their life and it’s more fun to predict because there
are so many more possibilities. I love predicting in books and movies. This book
was a little too easy to predict because of how the author dragged on things that
could have been way shorter.



The Wetherbys

Kennedy Smith