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Every single time I read it (which is about 3 times a year.. same with The Giver, can't get enough ) I start crying. Such an amazing book... the second one (Summer of the Monkeys) is amazing too.
This is the first "chapter" book I ever read and I was addicted to reading ever since. I cried so hard, non stop, in the middle of my 3rd grade class. And I never felt guilty about it. The only thing that angered me was that some one who had read this book before let a sensitive little 10 year old read this book in the first place. My dog had died right in front of me 6 months before.......... With that being said, I am so thankful this book was brought into my life. It really did open the door to reading for me.
I hope I am remembering the right book, but when I was in second grade (45 years ago), our teacher used to read a chapter a day from a book she'd chosen. And one of those was that book. I was enjoying the story until it got to the part where the dogs got either badly hurt or killed, I can't remember which, It actually ruined my entire day and in the succeeding days as it went on I just put my fingers in my ears so that I didn't have to hear it anymore.
I've always very much an animal lover (have two dogs) and thus very sensitive to anything relating to animals getting hurt or worse. I even change the channel when that Humane Society ad comes on. I know that's a little overboard, but FWIW,that's me and there was my reaction to the book.
Oh yeah, we read this book in elementary school and also watched the movies more than once (yes, there were 2). Very much worth reading, just a major tearjerker!
Just hearing the name of that book brings tears to my eyes. Especially as a dog lover. Another one that haunts me is "Stone Fox". I have no desire to ever see or hear about either book ever again.
So like I said, I finished this book last night and cried myself to sleep, woke up, then cried the rest of the night away. I'm exhausted right now.
I knew the ending was heart breaking, but I wanted to re-read it because of the life lessons in the book.
Spoiler
The lesson of hard work. at the beginning, Billy is begging his parents to get him the hounds. Then he figures out he needs to work and save for them. Billy saves for two years to raise the incredible sum of $50, a fortune during the Depression. Then he walks 22 miles each way to the depot to pick them up.
The lesson of iron-willed determination. There are so many times when Billy wants to give up, but his Grandfather teaches him the value of not quitting. Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann just do not quit on each other.
The lesson of love and devotion. Billy found a tree with Dan and Ann carved in it, with a heart encircling the names. The hunters at the big coon hunt championships say it's not loyalty that makes dogs do what they do, but love, the deepest kind of love.
At first, I thought that's an incredibly dangerous sport, a young boy out coon hunting. Forget the mountain lion, coons can be vicious on their own. But in those days, parents weren't there to helicopter their kids. Sure Billy's mother is going to worry, but she knows she can't stop him from what he loves. By having Old Dan and Little Ann in his life, he learns determination, love, devotion, faith, sorrow, pain, hurt. Kids today, there biggest disappointment is not leveling up in their favorite video game.
The accident, I kept reliving it and kept thinking of ways to save Old Dan. Just get him to the vet! The Colman's didn't even have a car, and antibiotics weren't in use until after WWII. The blood loss, immune system being so down, infection setting in, Dan's injuries were too much.
Then I wondered, wasn't Billy's love enough to sustain Little Ann? But Little Ann just died of a broken heart. Those two little hounds were united in life, and were destined to be united in death.
The biggest life lesson of Where The Red Fern Grows is I believe there are supernatural forces in our lives (God? Angles? Fate? Destiny? Karma?) that act to guide us. Billy prayed and got everything he wanted, then in one terrible night it was all taken away. His parents attempt to explain why to him, and they end up sounding foolish. We have to accept it when disappointment happens in life, and trust that there is a meaning to it.
For the Colman's, Old Dan and Little Ann earned enough money to get them to town. I wonder if they really meant, get out west to a better life? They were probably living a hand to mouth existence on that farm, and now they could have a better life.
In the beginning of the book, Billy is a boy hollering, "Buy me some dogs, buy me some dogs!" At the end of the book, a man left that farm.
What I remember about Where the Red Fern Grows is that it was the mostly widely-read non-assigned book when I was in Junior High/Middle School (early 1980s). Someone was always lugging it around along with their paper-bag-covered textbooks.
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) I start crying. Such an amazing book... the second one (Summer of the Monkeys) is amazing too.
