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George Goldthwaite grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After completing flight school, he flew the A-6 Intruder off the aircraft carrier USS Ranger. When not performing official duties, he spent his free time backpacking, canoeing, and skiing throughout the northwestern United States. George later served as a flight instructor in Pensacola, Florida before leaving the service. He then flew for twenty-five years as a pilot for a major airline. George is the proud father of three sons, all pilots.
After retirement, he joined the DFW Writers’ Workshop to pursue another passion: writing. He is the author of three historical westerns available in audio format from Books in Motion. His current work includes the Eagle Mountain Adventure Series, a collection of middle grade adventure novels available from Fawkes Press. He now resides with his wife and Golden Retriever in a tiny town in north Texas.
Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
When thirteen-year-old friends Alex and Josh are stranded on a desolate mountain mesa, following a plane crash, with Josh’s eight-year-old brother, Mickey, and Alex’s seriously injured pilot father, the young people’s survival skills and maturity are severely put to the test. Where they have crashed in the middle of winter, just one day prior to Christmas, is a lonely, desolate, freezing cold and dangerous place. Not only do the young people have to figure out how to find food and water, they also have to build a fire to keep warm and to care for Alex’s veterinarian father, who is slipping in and out of consciousness. To add to their travails, throw in a hungry puma and a mysterious, ghost-like remnant of the past inhabitants of this corner of New Mexico - the long disappeared, indigenous Anasazi tribe - and you have the makings of an excellent adventure, full of danger and excitement. This is what author George Goldthwaite has presented his readers with in Survival on Mystery Mesa: Eagle Mountain Adventures (Book 1).
The number one thing I loved about this story was that although it was written with the target audience of middle-school children, the writing and the story are just as enjoyable for a reader, like me, who is about as far away from middle-school age as one can get. The three youngsters who are the heroes of this story are compelling, believable and totally normal kids that one would meet every day. They possess nothing particularly special, but George Goldthwaite shows through them that, when placed under extreme pressure, even the most average of us is able to rise to the occasion and perform above and beyond what we may have expected of ourselves. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed this read and the perils the young people faced and attempted to overcome. Especially poignant for me was the way they handled the aftermath of their adventure when faced with scepticism and condescension. Survival on Mystery Mesa: Eagle Mountain Adventures (Book 1) is a wonderful story for middle-school children, but applicable to all ages of readers who enjoy a good, clean adventure. As the first book in a series, I say bring on the next one.
