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hed when I admitted that, although I had started this book, I had never finished it. It was the first book that both my children cried over and I knew it was time to finish what I had started. The book, written by Wilson Rawls, is a semi-autobiographical look at life in the Ozarks during the Great Depression. The main character, Billy Coleman, dreams of owning hunting hounds but the depression and his family's lack of money make the dream all but impossible. A dogged determination marks the character and over a two-year time span he manages to save enough money to buy two redbone hound dogs.
The book chronicles the lives of Billy and those who share his Ozark home. His grandfather and the Pritchard brothers play main roles in the story as it unfolds. Billy's devotion to his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann, and their devotion to Billy and each other, is the heart of this story.
Through victories, insights, and tragedies, the story of a boy and his dogs is in fact a coming of age story. Billy learns to appreciate the hard life of the Pritchard brothers, the tenacity of the ghost coon, and what it means to nurture and love another living thing.
Neither the book or the movie is entirely a feel good adventure. Rubin Pritchard is killed(in the book he trips, in the film he is tripped by Billy), Dan and Ann die of injury and sorrow, and the Ozark home is left for a life in the city. The 1974 film is available in its entirety on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJtHsZmOnPg. The movie is a faithful adaptation of the book-except where Billy trips Rubin and the very important beginning of the book. The book begins with Billy as an adult who finds and nurses a sick dog back to health. This event triggers his memories of his childhood in the Ozarks and of Dan and Ann. I missed this moment in the movie.
The following website offers a comprehensive unit that can be used when reading Where the Red Fern Grows.
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