Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls    ISBN: 0385323301

Ah ... a book from my childhood.  My fifth grade teacher read this book to our class years ago.  Out of all the books that my school teachers read out loud, I can only remember Owls in the Family, On the Banks of Plum Creek, and Where the Red Fern Grows.*  What a wonderful gift it is for teachers to read good books to their students.  As a homeschooling parent, I especially enjoy the unity that reading a good book out loud together gives us; we end up with a shared past (or experiences) to refer to over and over again. 

I tried for about a year to get my son to read Where the Red Fern Grows--just gentle suggestions every couple of months--but he just wasn't interested.  So once we were done with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, I started reading it aloud to my son and daughter.  They both really liked it, though my son was very loathe to admit it since he had thought it has sounded "stupid" prior to my reading it to them.  My daughter, age 9, was not afraid to admit that she liked the story and begged for me to read longer! 

The story is about a boy that lives in the Ozark Mountains some time in the early part of the 20th century (wow, I was about to write "early part of this century" and then realized that some people may be reading this review in the year 2001+ and could get confused!)  Billy has a terrible disease--he wants coon dogs in a real bad way.  His folks are poor, and coon dogs cost money.  Billy's dad understands his son's desire for a dog and offers to get him a collie from a neighbor.  A collie just won't do though; Billy wants coon dogs (how else can he hunt coons?)  So Billy spends the next two years working at odd jobs.  Billy's very industrious and saves every penny.  I had to admire his persistence and determination.

Once he gets his dogs, Billy teaches them to hunt by dragging an old coonskin all over the woods near his home.  His dogs take to hunting like ducks to water.  Old Dan and Little Ann are great hunters and work together as a team as they try to outsmart the coons that are trying to outsmart them.  Little Ann's brain complements Old Dan's brawn, and the two dogs work together as "one."  Their loyalty and love for each other (and toward Billy) is inspiring, as was Billy's respect for his dogs. 

Quite a number of events keep the story interesting.  Billy entered himself and his dogs in a championship coon hunt.  His dogs were good, but Billy was still in his teens.  Could the other entrants take Billy seriously?  After all, Billy was just a boy.  And what about the neighbor boys, Rainie and Rubin and their bet that Billy and his hounds couldn't catch the "ghost" coon?  That was a night to remember--with a lesson!  And you won't forget the cat that Little Ann and Old Dan treed!  Overall, it's good story. 

There are a couple of items that might bother some.  Billy cuts down trees right and left just to get to the coons.  Of course, it was a different time and maybe the family eventually used the trees to cook their food and stay warm.  But it seemed like he cut a whole lot of trees down.  Another thing was the killing of the coons; animal lovers might find this a little too much for their taste.  And lastly, a boy dies while running with an ax in the woods--a rather upsetting scene.  I wouldn't personally recommend it as a read aloud for children younger than 8, but that's just personal opinion. 

Overall, Where the Red Fern Grows is a pretty good children's story--well written and interesting, with likeable characters.  You should see all the recommendations at Amazon.com!  Out of a 124 votes, it's got a rating of 5 stars.