Review: Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Billy lives in the country and has saved up his money for two whole years to buy two dogs that he can hunt raccoons with. The two dogs - Old Dan and Little Ann - turn out to be two of the best hunting dogs around. When Billy starts entering hunting competitions, the danger and excitement starts.

Excerpt (page 40): “The leader of the gang was about my size. He had a dirty freckled face and his front two teeth were missing. ... He stomped on my right foot. I looked down and saw a drop of blood ooze out from under the broken nail. It hurt like the dickens but I gritted my teeth and walked on.
“Freckle-face pulled the ear of my little girl pup. I heard her painful cry. That was too much. I hadn’t worked two long hard years for my pups to have some freckle-faced punk pull their ears. … I reached way back into Arkansas somewhere. By the time my fist had traveled all the way down to the Cherokee Strip, there was a lot of power behind it.”

This is one of my favourite books: it is exciting, funny, scary, sad, and it's easy to relate to Billy and what he goes through. I always thought that it would have been fun to be like Billy and go on adventures with his two dogs who were also his best friends.

5 stars out of 5 for Where the Red Fern Grows.

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About the author, Wilson Rawls.