Red Ranger Came Calling (Paperback, 1st pbk. ed)

This unique story of one boy's Christmas wish begins and ends with a bicycle. Using glowing images and a funny, provocative text, the author relives his father's most amazing childhood Christmas. A moody young boy living with his aunt on an island in the Pacific Northwest, "Red" Breathed sees himself as the "Red Ranger from Mars," his hero from the movie serials, and cannot picture life without the gift of a Red Ranger bicycle. Red is far too "swanky a human being" to believe in Santa Claus, but nevertheless he pays a visit to the aged island hermit Lord Sander Clos, rumored to be the legendary man himself now living in lonely, joyless retirement. This strange and bittersweet meeting triggers an emotional response within the self-absorbed Red. It also leads to the most remarkable bicycle ever delivered on a Christmas morning: one neatly and permanently stuck inside a tree. The book ends with a photograph of the amazing tree fifty years later -- still holding the bicycle of a boy who grew up happy without it.

This book represents the Pulitzer Prize-winning Berkeley Breathed at the top of his form. It combines hypnotic imagery and richly textured language to create a powerful, unforgettable Christmas story.