Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Growing an Inch (Cal Gant #3)
A story of a 18 year old boy struggling against all odds to keep his family together. After his mother dies, his alcoholic father can't care for his family properly and the boy fights against the welfare system that wants to separate him and his two brothers and sister. Set in St Paul in 1949-50, Donny Cunningham makes a vow to keep his family together and leads the reader
...morePaperback, 251 pages
Published
June 1st 2003
by Lexington Marshall Pub
(first published January 5th 2003)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
201)
Reading SG West is like watching a wonderful old black & white movie. The nostalgia, the great stories that you just know will end well no matter how much awful happens, the more innocent times. I love it. This book has all of that, sometimes some LOL humor, moments that brought me to tears. As a resident of St. Paul, I must confess a strong bias. A little bit of trivia: his publishing company is named Lexington-Marshall Publishing. Lexington & Marshall is the intersection in St. Paul wh...more
I loved this book, it was a great read with an exciting twis. Donny Cunningham does whatever he can do to keep his family together after he accidently kills his motha. He does everything he can do to get rid of the mean lady next door and keep his dad from drinking. in the end he keeps his family together and makes his dad not drink.
view all 3 comments
this was a good book if you liked until they bring the street cars back you will like this book too.....it really pulls at your emotions and has a very unexpected but long anticipated happy ending, I recommended it.
Another great St. Paul mystery.
This 3rd book in West's St. Paul trilogy was not my favorite. The life lessons and nostalgia get laid on pretty thick, and the story which is maybe the most plausible of the series also wasn't as captivating as the others. Yet it is hard not to like these characters, and the circa 1950 setting is obviously a time and place the author has a great fondness for.
Since the book parallels the others from the perspective of a different character, it is as if you have already read this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about a young boy's life in his last year of high school. Bittersweet, poignantly funny, set in St. Paul, MN in the late 1940's. Donny's heroism in keeping his family together while his father struggles with alcoholism, warding off the local social worker, 'Miss Doomsday', and listening to war stories from neighbor, 'Uncle Effie', I found myself cheering that last inch and the growth of character that lead to it.
I agree with another review that if you liked Until They Bring the Streetcars Back, you'll love this one too. I really enjoy West's storytelling.
I was afraid of what the ending might be --- but it ended well. Good, but not the best of his books. But I''ll keep reading them........
I love this book- not as wonderful as the other one, but still a good, good book!
so far my favorite SGW. I love all of his books!
Great story. Loved the characters. Touching.
May 12, 2013
Cary Roller
marked it as to-read
May 03, 2013
Mandi Eckman
marked it as to-read
Apr 06, 2013
Julia
marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2013
Carena
marked it as to-read
Apr 03, 2013
Kathy Jensen
marked it as to-read
Apr 01, 2013
Jenna Mairs
marked it as to-read
Mar 27, 2013
Rachel
added it
Mar 27, 2013
Ruth
marked it as to-read
Mar 26, 2013
Juli Khanjyan
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Stanley Gordon West was born in 1932 and attended St. Paul Central High School in Minnesota. He lived in Bozeman, Montana for several years, and now resides in Shakopee, MN. All of his novels are popular book club selections: Blind Your Ponies, two other novels set in the same time and place as Until They Bring the Streetcars Back - Finding Laura Buggs and Growing an Inch - and his most recent, Sw...more
More about Stanley Gordon West...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.”
—
9 people liked it
More quotes…
