Where the Red Fern Grows
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- ISBN13: 9780440412670
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
First published in 1961, a modern-day classic for children follows the friendship between a boy and his two dogs as they search out adventure along the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Reprint.Amazon.com Review
Leader Wilson Rawls spent his boyhood much like the character of this book, Billy Colman, roaming the Ozarks of northeastern Oklahoma with his bluetick hound. A straightforward, shoot-from-the-hip storyteller with a searingly honest voice, Rawls is well-loved for this powerful 1961 classic and the award-winning novel Summer of the Monkeys. In Where the Red Fern Grows, Billy and his precious coonhound pups romp relentlessly through the Ozarks, trying to “tree” the elusive raccoon. In time, the inseparable trio wins the coveted gold cup in the annual coon-hunt contest, captures the wily ghost coon, and bravely fights with a mountain lion. When the victory over the mountain lion turns to tragedy, Billy grieves, but learns the gorgeous ancient Native American legend of the sacred red fern that grows over the graves of his dogs. This unforgettable classic belongs on every child’s bookshelf. (Ages 9 and up)
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This book is soooooo dull! We read this book this year in school and I literaly fell asleep! OMG! I despise this book! It is soo ancient it’s hard to know what they are talking about! It would be way better if it were more modernized!
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
BORING!!!!
I’m a middle school teacher and tried reading this novel (based on another teachers recommendations) with a classroom of juvenile hall students.
SNORE CITY. This tale may have been significant in the 1961 America but it had small appeal for my culturally and racially diverse inner city kids. Horribly featureless dialog.
Promotes cruelty to animals (raccoons).
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Avoid this at all costs, it’s horrible. It has a terrible tale, and a shockingly horrible ending. THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR KIDS PARENTS! There is a lot of detailed violence in the reading, it’s down right yucky sometimes. Don’t buy this, it’s a waste of paper. Save the trees! =)
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Warning: Spoilers.
One of the things I do in one of the classes I teach is read aloud a book that all of the students can delight in. A book I chose to read for the class was one nearly every middle school kid in the country is familiar with but somehow escaped my detection, and that is the book, Where the Red Fern Grows, written by Wilson Rawls with a lot of help from his wife, Sophia. She was his editor, as he had small proper education and was so embarrassed over his previous writing attempts he ruined all of his manuscripts, which included this particular tale. She encouraged him to rewrite it, and he managed to sell it to the Saturday Evening Post in a series of installments. In 1961 it became a bestselling book and a “classic” of sorts, but I don’t remember the book at all growing up. It spawned three movies and continues to be a well loved “children’s” book. But, the content is such it is really unbefitting for anyone younger than middle school.
I establish the book well written and gripping, but when all is said and done, I was nothing fleeting of appalled by the actions of the main character, Billy Coleman, who was in fact the fictional name of the leader. The book is really based on Rawls’ own experiences living in the Ozarks as a child. Since he had no proper education and had to be schooled at home, he establish additional outlets, such as running around the countryside with his dogs killing raccoons for fun and profit. I know it was around the late 1920s, and the family tree was poor and all of that, but frankly it was a sick pasttime. But, that’s not what I establish most appalling about the character.
It was that the kid was a perfect and total idiot, really irresponsible, and as I was reading the book to the students, I became more disgusted. This was before I establish out this book was rooted in real experiences, and when I did find out, I was even madder. Rawls permanently talked about how his reminiscences of his youth were all about “pursuing dreams,” and how if people set their minds to it, they, too, can reach their dreams. Perhaps. But, I want to judge most people achieve their dreams by using their brains, not acting on impulse and involving others lacking regard as to the consequences.
In the book, the central character, Billy (Rawls), wants a pair of redbone coonhounds, but his parents cannot afford to buy them for him. Well, never mind the parents, for Billy is going to get them regardless. So he works in odd jobs for two years saving enough money to order a pair of puppies by mail. He enlists his grandfather to go behind his parents’ backs and gets the dogs. By the time the dogs are on the porch, well, what could the parents do about it? They had to accept the situation and had to feed the animals out of their hard-earned money, too. If Billy felt any guilt over the stunt he pulled, it didn’t last long. He chose the animals would be place to work as soon as possible to tree “coons” in order to get the skins and make some money.
Most of the rest of the book we are treated to adventure after adventure of the blood sport of coon hunting. The dogs, Ancient Dan and Small Ann, prove themselves to be among the best coonhounds in the Ozarks. But, it wasn’t all sweetness and light for the trio. During one episode, one of the dogs nearly drowns before Billy finally pulls her out of the freezing water. In another episode, a pair of national boys, the Pritchards, goad Billy into a bet about how excellent his dogs are in treeing coons and challenge him to have his dogs catch a so-called “ghost” coon. Well, that episode ends happily as one of the boys impales himself with an ax and dies. Then, in one of the few bright spots in the book, Billy’s dogs win prizes at a local coonhound competition, but in the hunting sequence he nearly gets the judge, his dad, and his grandfather killed when an ice storm hits because he is too stupid to call his dogs back when they are too far away from “civilization.” And before long afterwards, this poor excuse for a teenager wanders around in the dark again with his two dogs, only to come across a mountain lion, which mortally injures Ancient Dan to the point where the dog is disemboweled, but the dog latches onto the mountain lion until the huge cat dies. Billy, who really feels some remorse for his canine acquaintances situation, carries him home for his parents to sew the dog’s guts back into the wound, but sadly the dog dies before the night is over. As for Small Ann, she is so grief-stricken she refuses to eat, and she ends up dying before long afterwards.
At the end of this truly heartwarming tale, Billy buries both dogs on a hillside, and a small red fern grows where the graves are. He doesn’t get another dog, which is a excellent thing, for if it were up to me, he wouldn’t be anywhere near an animal again agreed the outrageous stunts he pulled throughout the book. But, he and his family tree place the Ozarks for excellent in pursuit of additional dreams, and that is the end of that.
In the final analysis, the only smart characters in the tale were the dogs, but the only stupid thing they did was going after the mountain lion. They should have let the huge cat have at it with Billy and eat him up. But we wouldn’t have been treated to this book, unless the leader made up the incident, and I wouldn’t be reviewing it if that were the case.
The four stars are for the dogs, for they were the right heroes of the book.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
The writer is talented but the tale itself is just TOO SAD! I feel that a excellent plot has a nice balance of excellent and terrible events and this tale was not balanced. I don’t mind a sad ending, or a bittersweet ending, personally I just don’t like so much gloom and doom in one tale. There is so much pain and heartbreak in the tale it seems nearly like the writer is a small sadistic or else had a tough childhood! I reflect this book might be a small much for younger kids or sensitive readers but it’s a excellent tale if you are into sadness, drama, some adventure and really, really sad and honestly gory and bloody scenes.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5