BOOK REVIEW: Where the Red Fern grows by Wilson Rawls
3:47 PM
Maya, my dog, pretending she's a nice girl before trying to eat the book.
Original title: Where the red fern grows
Author: Wilson Rawls
Year of Publication: 1961
Number of pages: 249
“People have been trying to understand dogs since the beginning of time. One never knows what they’ll do. You can read every day where a dog saved the life of a drowning child, or lay down his life for his master. Some people call this loyalty. I don’t know. I may be wrong, but I call it love-the deepest kind of love."
Deep in the Ozark mountains in Cherokee country lives Billy Coleman, a dog-obsessed little hunter who works hard for two long years to be able to afford two redbone coonhounds. Danger and many adventures lie ahead for the fearless trio, who prove that nothing can beat determination and the love only dogs can bring into our lives.
Billy lives a modest life, his father works as a farmer and his mother takes care of him and his three sisters, so his parents can not afford to buy him two redbone coonhounds, but the desire in him is so great that he forces himself to work enough to be able to have them, thus beginning the story in which he tells us about his childhood with his two dogs: Little Anne, small and intelligent, and Old Dan, the strongest of both. We can see throughout the book the incredible relationship that Billy develops with the dogs while he trains them to hunt raccoons.
This is a story about determination and love. The kind of determination that makes Billy work for what he wants, keep promises and never give up, even if he has to shed some tears along the way, and the kind of love that exists only between a person and his dog. It is apparent from the beginning why this book is a required reading in many schools in the United States, since the lessons are constant and Billy's growth in the face of hopelessness is to be admired. Rawls shows us how difficult it can be to get what you want and how true courage and goodness consists in doing what you need despite the suffering, as well as learning to deal with loss.
The story has already left its legacy: it has been adapted to the big screen on two different occasions, most recent in 2003, it is the inspiration behind the annual "Red Fern" festival in the city of Tahlequah, which appears in the book, and you can visit Billy and his two dogs at a statue in Idaho Falls, Idaho. However, the most important legacy is the one left in every person, children and adult, who have read this book and enjoyed the story. I recommend it to all people who like adventures, but particularly to all those who have loved a dog as much as Billy did.
- Where to buy? I got mine second-hand, but you can buy it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or The Book Depository.
- The Red Fern Festival in Tahlequah, in case you ever go there.
- Trailer for the 2003 film.
0 comentarios