Where The Red Fern Grows Who Helped Billy Earn Money

Credits

Readability Age Range

8 to 12

Publisher

Yearling Books, a partition of Random Business firm

Awards

Over the last 50 years, this story has won many regional awards.

Year Published

1996

Book Review

This book has been reviewed past Focus on the Family's marriage and parenting magazine.

Plot Summary

The story opens with Billy Colman, a grown man, coming upon a brutal domestic dog fight between a Redbone Coonhound and neighborhood street dogs. Billy scares the other dogs away and takes the hound dwelling house to help it recover. When the domestic dog is on its anxiety again and noticeably restless, Billy realizes that the dog has a home somewhere and that he must set up it free and then information technology tin find its way back. As the dog trots off, information technology turns and appears thankful to Billy for his kindness. The feel releases a flood of memories from Billy'due south boyhood past.

10-twelvemonth-erstwhile Billy lives on a farm in the Ozark Mountains with his parents and three younger sisters. He desperately wants two good coonhounds, simply his family is poor and cannot beget them. One mean solar day Billy finds an advertisement offering a pair of Redbone Coonhounds in Kentucky for $25 each. Baton decides to piece of work to earn the coin. For two years, he works difficult, selling food, supplies and bait to fishermen, and manages to save $50. His grandfather contacts the canis familiaris kennel and discovers that the two puppies will at present toll only $forty. Billy gives the money to his grandpa, who orders the dogs. The puppies are sent to the town depot.

Billy sneaks out of his home ane night to walk to town to option up his new pups. With the extra money he has saved, he buys presents for his family. While in town, other children selection a fight with him, but Billy stands up for himself and is helped by the town's kind marshal.

On his way domicile, Billy and his 2 puppies seek shelter in a cave. Equally Billy builds a fire, they hear a mountain panthera leo screaming from far away, and the pups run to the archway to howl into the darkness. Billy decides to name his dogs Old Dan and Petty Ann. One-time Dan has the brawn and the bravery, while Little Ann is intelligent.

With his grandfather's help, Baton traps a raccoon and uses the skin to teach his new pups how to track a raccoon. Both dogs bear witness to be natural hunters. They are fiercely loyal to each other and to Baton. As the hunting season begins, Billy makes a promise to his dogs: If they get a raccoon upwardly a tree, he will do the rest. The dogs chase their starting time raccoon into one of the largest trees in the forest, and Billy, not wanting to disappoint his dogs, undertakes the job of cutting down the tree, a Herculean task that takes him a few days of chopping. When he is most of the way through the tree, Billy feels he tin can't go on, and he prays for the strength to finish the job. A wind starts to blow, and the tree comes crashing down. The eager dogs have the raccoon downwards.

Billy and his dogs hunt every night, and the team soon grows to exist among the best hunters in the surface area. Two local boys named Rubin and Rainie Pritchard dare Billy into a raccoon-hunting bet. Billy wants to ignore the dare, just the Pritchard boys just taunt Billy and his gramps. Billy'due south grandfather grows frustrated with the Pritchards and says that Billy and his dogs volition have the bet. After several days of tracking the elusive raccoon, Niggling Ann finally chases it down. The animal's tricks have earned Billy's respect, and he doesn't want to kill the coon. Rubin and Rainie get angry with Billy and allow their dog, a blue tick hound, to pick a fight with Old Dan. Billy's dogs stand up their basis against the blueish tick hound, and he slinks abroad. Furious, Rubin Pritchard picks upwards Billy'southward ax to go after Former Dan. Billy trips the Pritchard boy, and he falls onto the blade and dies. Billy feels awful about the incident, and he is unable to chase for many days. He is haunted by nightmares of the tragedy.

Time passes, and Baton'south grandfather shows him an advert for an upcoming coon-hunting competition. Grandpa has been counting the coonskins that Billy has brought into the store, and he is confidant that Onetime Dan and Little Dan tin can win the championship and the $300 prize money. Excited for the opportunity, Billy and his dogs, forth with his granddad and father, pack up their gear and travel to the contest. Before the main hunting event, Piffling Ann wins commencement place in a hunting canis familiaris "beauty" contest.

The chase begins and Baton's dogs gradually brand it to the terminal circular. A terrible storm lashes the mountain on the concluding twenty-four hour period of the hunt, and Billy's team gets separated. His grandpa breaks his ankle, and Billy begins to despair, believing his beloved dogs are dead. The next morning, several other hunters from the contest track downwards Billy and his team. The dogs have been nearly frozen to death from the ice storm, and Billy helps them recover past warming them next to a fire. Billy is alleged the winner of the championship and is given a gold cup as well as the $300 prize coin.

Weeks later on, Billy is hunting with his dogs on the trail of what they remember is a coon. Merely the fauna turns out to be a mountain king of beasts. Quondam Dan and Little Ann get into a vicious fight with the creature. The lion tears at the dogs, especially Old Dan, who gives his life to save Billy from the attacking lion. Billy fights his mode to his feet and finally kills the lion with his ax. Soon afterward, Footling Ann also dies, every bit she no longer has the want to live without her companion. Billy grieves the loss of his dearest hounds and dutifully buries them on a hillside near the family unit'due south farm.

The following year, Billy's family prepares to move into town, where the children can get a good education. As they are leaving, Billy visits his dogs' gravesite to say a final goodbye. He is surprised to see a alpine carmine fern growing betwixt the graves, and he remembers an old Indian story nigh how red ferns are supposedly planted by angels. One time planted, the ferns live forever. Billy feels a new peace about the expiry of his dogs, and he leaves to bring together his family unit.

Christian Behavior

God exists and seems to answer prayers. Billy oft prays, assertive that God is on his side and wants to protect his dogs. His faith is shaken when his dogs die. Christian virtues such as faithfulness, patience and courage are portrayed in a very positive light.

Other Belief Systems

There is a reference to Indian legends with a mystic view of nature.

Authorization Roles

Baton greatly respects his parents, though he is disappointed past economic circumstances. Baton has an especially close relationship with his grandpa, who he says knows him better than anyone else.

Profanity & Violence

In that location are hints of acrimony and muttered curses, though no explicit words are used. There is one usage of b–ch, the correct discussion for a female domestic dog.

Several instances of graphic animal violence on hunts and in fights, and one gruesome fight between dogs and a mountain panthera leo are portrayed. Bullies option fights with Baton. A boy dies when he falls on an ax.

Sexual Content

Discussion Topics

Additional Comments

You tin request a review of a title you lot can't find at [email protected].

Volume reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to determine whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book's review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.