Where the Red Fern Grows
1961
- social issues - friendship
- juvenile fiction
- children's books/ages 9-12 fiction
- children: grades 4-6
- social situations - adolescence
- social issues - adolescence
- classics
- juvenile fiction / social situations / adolescence
- children's 9-12 - literature - classics / contemporary
- action & adventure - general
The story
Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1961 children's novel by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys two hunting dogs. ---------- Also contained in: [Prentice Hall Literature: Bronze](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24558491W)
What it’s like
Plain, unhurried prose carries this one: a country-boy's voice told in the first person, with the Ozark hills rendered through close, practical detail, creek bottoms, cold mornings, the smell of woodsmoke and coon-hunting nights under a big sky. The mood is warm and earnest, with a steady undertow of grief that rises slowly rather than arriving as a shock. Its rhythm is episodic and leisurely, built from days of work, training, and hunts in the woods, so it suits an evening read or a quiet afternoon when you want a story to settle into. Emotionally it is tender and sincere, following a young boy's devotion to his dogs and the hard lessons of loyalty, perseverance, and loss, with a clear arc from childhood innocence toward maturity. Intensity is low: there is no gore or sexual content, and the deaths are sad rather than graphic, though a few are emotionally heavy for younger readers. Written for ages nine to twelve and remembered fondly by adults who first read it as children, it suits readers who want an old-fashioned, heartfelt animal story with a sincere rural setting.
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