Where the Red Fern Grows

I think I first heard of Where the Red Fern Grows in my Children's Literature class in college. While sorting thru the paperback drawers in the retirement library to find some to discard, I noticed we have two copies of this book. I brought the shabbier copy home to read with the idea of discarding it. It is a beautiful story full of lessons about family, hard work, loving nature, being aware of and depending on God. I have put it on my bookshelf with the idea I might read it again later; that is fairly rare for me.

I would not recommend this book for younger children. A teen would probably do OK. Actually older adults are probably the best audience because they have memories of their own unsophisticated childhoods that correlate to this book and have felt and accepted the hard things of life. The coons do not let the dogs kill them without putting up a fight. Animal lovers might blanch. This is not killing for sport; the hides are sold. There are incidents of loss and death that would be too upsetting for a young child. I cried several times. 

As 10-year-old Billy roams the fields, hills, rivers of his Ozark home, he is obsessed with wanting two coon hounds. His parents are sympathetic but barely make ends meet. There is no money to buy hunting dogs. After waiting and trying the next year, Billy comes across a fishing and hunting magazine left behind by the river. An ad for red coon hounds catches his eye. He determines that somehow he will earn the $50 to buy a pair of hounds. It takes him two years. 

It is love at first sight when his pups arrive. Old Dan and Little Ann have different personalities and skills, but they complement each other well. Their success in the hunt spreads throughout the countryside. The devotion of the dogs to each other and to Billy is reciprocated by the lad. Through them, he learns lessons of love, perseverance, sacrifice. 

The narrator is a man looking back at his childhood. He remembers how he loved his home and Eastern Oklahoma where he hunted, but has not seen since his early teens. He fondly thinks of his father, mother, sisters, and grandfather. Mostly, he sees how his beloved hounds played a big part in making him the man he is.