We Join a Quest for a Killer Panther in Civil War Era Texas Hill Country

Cindy T. nominated The Which Way Tree, by Elizabeth Crook. Cindy suggested we share photos depicting what we like and what we don’t like about Texas. We had fun with that at the beginning of the meeting! Photos and computers go together well!! It was fun to go through the photos..a treat for the 13 of us in the Zoom Room!

Things we like: The new Main Branch of the Austin Public Library, the wide-open skies and mountains in West Texas, the beach, Texas barbecue, the University of Texas in Austin, Texans, and owning a beautiful ranch.

Things we don’t like: cockroaches; Austin traffic; Texas venomous snakes; the heat in summer; and wild cats of Texas, particularly the panther in the book.

Cindy also gave us 4 discussion questions, which were posted well before the meeting. Here are some highlights from one of the questions:

Question: What parts of this book made you uncomfortable and why?

Cindy T. was uncomfortable with how close the panther was to the young brother and sister, Benjamin and Samantha, several times in the book. She was also disturbed by the way the children were living, without anyone helping them.

Marcia noted that the messy house, with uncontrolled animals living indoors might have been common in country homes at that time. She thought it was interesting how Samantha and Ben coped and survived in their extreme poverty.

Joyce Z. was uncomfortable about the filthy cabin. She also felt badly when the camel was beaten.

I was uncomfortable with the tension and lack of control that were both almost constant and affected every character during every part of the story.

Joyce noticed that everyone was out of control but had positive outcomes by the end of the story.

When Samantha and Ben and the panther were being carried by the flash flood and were caught up in the brush that was also rushing with the river, Jay became uncomfortable. This episode reminded him of getting caught underwater in brush when he was on a canoe trip and tried to help someone whose canoe was caught in brush.

Cindy T. said that she was afraid Ben and Samantha wouldn’t get away from the river when it was rushing and carrying them.

We went off on a tangent for a while, gossiping about Samantha, who seemed to make us all, and everyone else she met, uncomfortable!

Joyce Z. disliked Samantha, finding her unhelpful and disagreeable. Joyce saw that she was a cross to bear for Benjamin.

Joanne and Shirley were impressed with how Samantha used her wits.

Cindy T. said that Samantha’s singlemindedness about chasing the panther made her uncomfortable.

Lydia wondered what we thought happened to Samantha’s during her adult life, after she lost touch with Benjamin.

Marcia suggested that Samantha probably didn’t stay in any one place for long, because her argumentative personality would have likely caused her to have to move often.

Samantha’s faults were noticeable throughout the story. She was the force behind the story, though her brother created the narrative. It was Samantha’s obsession with killing the panther that moved the characters through the story.