Where the Red Fern Grows: Difference between revisions
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{{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --> |
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| name = Where the Red Fern Grows |
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| title_orig = |
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| translator = |
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| image = [[image:Where the red fern grows 1996.jpg|200px]] |
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| image_caption = First edition hardback cover.| author = [[Wilson Rawls]] |
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| country = {{Flag|United States}} |
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| language = [[English language|English]] |
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| genre = [[Children's novel]] |
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| publisher = [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |
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| release_date = [[1961 in literature|1961]] |
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| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover]]) |
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| pages = 245 pp |
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| isbn = ISBN 0-440-22814-X |
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| oclc= 39850615 |
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}} |
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{{All plot|date=February 2011}} |
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'''''Where the Red Fern Grows''''' is a children's novel written by [[Wilson Rawls]] about a boy who buys and trains two [[Redbone Coonhound]] hunting dogs. This book is a popular choice for early middle school reading classes, with a reading level appropriate to grades 4 and up.<ref>[http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=1343_type=Book_typeId=1064 Where the Red Fern Grows Discussion Guide | Scholastic.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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==Plot summary== |
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Before leaving work one afternoon, Billy Colman spots a Redbone coonhound in a fight with neighborhood dogs. Billy chases the other dogs and helps the hound recover from its wounds. When the dog is feeling stronger again, Billy realizes he must set it free, knowing that the hound will find its way home. This event makes Billy revisit his past, and the two coonhounds he had taken care of when he was a boy in [[the Ozarks]]. |
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Growing up in the Ozarks with his parents and three younger sisters, Billy wants to own a pair of Red Bone coonhounds but his parents tell him that the family cannot afford coonhounds. One day Billy finds an article in a sportsman magazine offering a pair of Red Bone coonhounds in Kentucky for $25 each. Billy decides to earn the money himself. For two years, he works many different jobs, and manages to save $50. His grandfather writes to the kennel and finds out that the dogs have dropped in price by $5 each. He sends for two Redbone hound puppies. |
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The mail does not deliver packages, and so the puppies have to be sent to the depot at [[Tahlequah, Oklahoma]]. Billy travels on his own by walking to the depot in Tahlequah and gets his puppies. With the extra ten dollars, Billy buys gifts for his family: a pair of overalls for his dad, cloth for making dresses for his mom and sisters, and a bag of candy for his sisters. On the way back home, he spends the night in Robber's Cave on Sparrow Hawk Mountain. There he builds a fire and plays with his puppies. While trying to sleep, he hears a noise that at first seems like a woman screaming, but he soon realizes it is really the scream of a mountain lion from far away. Both the puppies run to the mouth of the cave and challenge the cat. Billy worries for his dogs, and he remembers that his father told him "mountain lions are scared of fire," so he makes fire and waits for morning. In the morning, Billy continues on. He comes to a tree and sees the names Dan and Ann carved inside a heart into the bark and decides to name his dogs Old Dan and Little Ann. |
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To train his dogs, Billy catches a [[raccoon]] with the help of his grandfather and uses the fur to teach them how to trail a raccoon. During their training, the dogs' personalities become apparent: Old Dan is brave and strong, while Little Ann is very intelligent. Both are very loyal to each other and to Billy. |
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On the first day of the hunting season, Billy takes his dogs out for their very first hunt. He promises them if they tree a raccoon, he will do the rest. The dogs are very ready to chase their first raccoon in a large tree, which Billy had before nicknamed "the Big Tree", and it is one of the largest trees in the woods. As he tries to call his well-trained dogs off the hunt, they look at him sadly and he cuts down the enormous tree to keep his promise — an exhausting effort that takes him a few days of chopping and costs him blistered hands. In the end, when about to give up his effort, he offers a short prayer for strength to continue. Mysteriously,a strong wind starts to blow and the tree comes crashing down. Old Dan and Little Ann take the raccoon down. |
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Billy, Old Dan and Little Ann go out hunting almost every night. As months go by, Billy brings more fur into his grandfather's store than any other hunter, and the stories of his dogs spread throughout the Ozarks. Not long after earning local fame, two boys named Rubin and Rainie, of the Pritchard family, challenge Billy to a raccoon hunting contest. They say that no hound could ever chase the "ghost raccoon," a raccoon that lives near the Pritchards' home. Billy tries to ignore the challenge, but the Pritchards are mean, and start to talk about Billy's grandfather. His grandfather grows furious and tells Billy to accept the challenge so that Old Dan and Little Ann can chase it. After a few days of hunting and going through the ghost raccoon's tricks, Little Ann chases the raccoon. When Billy does not want to kill it, starting to give respect for the animal, Rubin and Rainie get angry, and at that time the Pritchards' [[Bluetick Coonhound]] comes up and challenges Old Dan. Rubin tells Billy that his dog will easily beat Old Dan, then, Little Ann joins to protect Old Dan and the Bluetick Coonhound loses quickly. Rubin worries for his dog's life and grabs Billy's axe and runs toward Old Dan and Little Ann, trying to kill them. Rubin then trips, falls on his axe and dies as a result of the injuries. Billy made visits to the Pritchard's Family cemetery on their property, to leave flowers on Rubin's Grave. On one of the visits he was possibly spotted by Rubin's mother. |
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A few weeks later, Billy's grandfather enters him into a championship raccoon hunt, putting Billy against experienced hunters and the finest hounds in all the country. Before the hunt started, Billy enters Little Ann into a contest for the best-looking hound, where she wins and is given the silver cup. On the fourth night of the hunt, Old Dan and Little Ann chase three coons, making it to the final round. The sixth night, the dogs chase one raccoon before a blizzard hits. Billy, his dad, grandfather and the judge lose sight of the dogs. When they finally find them, Billy's grandfather falls and sprains his ankle which prevents him from walking. They built a fire, and when Billy's dad chops down a tree, three coons rise. The dogs take down two of them, and chase the final raccoon to another tree. In the morning, the hunters find out the two dogs covered with ice circling the bottom of a tree. This last coon wins them the championship, and the gold cup. |
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One night, after the hunt, Billy and his dogs chase a [[mountain lion]], who attacks the dogs. Old Dan is seriously [[wounded]], but holds off the animal long enough for Billy to get the killing blow. Billy rushes his dogs home, but Old Dan's wounds are severe and he dies a few hours later. Little Ann survives the attack, but dies of grief a few days later by Old Dan's grave. Billy buries her next to Old Dan. Thanks to the money earned from the sale of Billy's raccoon furs — as well as the dogs' winnings from the championship raccoon hunt — the family can finally afford to move into town. |
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On the day that Billy and his family are to leave the farm to move to town, Billy visits his dogs' graves to say goodbye. There he sees that a large plant has grown between the two hounds: a red fern. According to an old Indian legend, only an angel can plant a red fern and wherever it grows is sacred. With this sign, Billy is finally able to recover from his loss. |
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==Films== |
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The novel was made into a popular [[Where the Red Fern Grows (1974 film)|1974 film]] starring Stewart Petersen, [[James Whitmore]] and [[Beverly Garland]].{{cn|date=May 2011}} The film was remade in [[Where the Red Fern Grows (2003 film)|2003]] and starred [[Joseph Ashton (actor)|Joseph Ashton]], [[Dabney Coleman]], [[Ned Beatty]] and [[Dave Matthews]]. {{cn|date=May 2011}} |
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==See also== |
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* [[List of Where the Red Fern Grows characters]] |
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==Footnotes== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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*[http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0211900/fern/where_the_red_fern_grows.htm?tqskip1=1 Oracle Think Quest, Education Foundation: Where the Red Fern Grows.] |
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*[http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/redfern/ SparkNotes: Where the Red Fern Grows.] |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Where The Red Fern Grows}} |
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[[Category:1961 novels]] |
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[[Category:The Ozarks]] |
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Revision as of 20:58, 7 December 2011
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