What is the time frame for Where the Red Fern Grows?

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What is the time frame for Where the Red Fern Grows?

Where the Red Fern Grows is the heartwarming and adventurous tale for all ages about a young boy and his quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs.Where the Red Fern Grows is the heartwarming and adventurous tale for all ages about a young boy and his quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs.Where the Red Fern Grows is the heartwarming and adventurous tale for all ages about a young boy and his quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs.

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    What is the time frame for Where the Red Fern Grows?

    By what name was Where the Red Fern Grows (1974) officially released in Canada in English?

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    Where the Red Fern Grows

    What is the time frame for Where the Red Fern Grows?

    First edition hardback cover

    AuthorWilson Rawls
    CountryUnited States
    LanguageEnglish
    GenreChildren's novel
    PublisherDoubleday

    Publication date

    1961
    Media typePrint (Hardcover)
    Pages245 pp.
    ISBN0-440-22814-X
    OCLC39850615

    Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1961 children's novel by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys two hunting dogs.[1] The book is a work of autobiographical fiction based on Rawls' own childhood in the Ozarks.

    Plot summary[edit]

    Billy Coleman, a middle-aged man, rescues a redbone hound under attack by neighborhood dogs. He takes it home with him so that its wounds can heal. In light of this event, he has a flashback to when he was a ten-year-old boy living in the Ozark Mountains.

    Young Billy Coleman wants nothing more than a pair of Redbone Coonhounds for coon hunting. After seeing a magazine ad for coon hounds, Billy spends the next two years working odd jobs to earn the $50 he needs to buy two puppies. Billy's dogs are delivered to Tahlequah, over 20 miles away. Billy decides to walk the distance. As he returns with the dogs, he sees a heart carved on a tree with the names "Dan + Ann" and decides to name the puppies Little Ann and Old Dan. With his grandfather's help, Billy teaches his dogs to be very loyal to each other and to Billy.

    The first night of hunting season, Billy promises the dogs that if they tree a coon, he will do the rest. They tree one in a huge sycamore, which Billy believes is far too large to chop down. Remembering his promise to his dogs, Billy spends the next two days attempting to chop down the sycamore. Exhausted, Billy prays for the strength to continue, whereupon a strong wind blows the tree over.

    Billy and his hounds become well-known as the best hunters in the Ozarks. Billy's grandfather makes a bet with Rubin and Rainie Pritchard that Old Dan and Little Ann can tree the legendary "ghost coon" that has eluded hunters for years. After a long, complicated hunt, Old Dan and Little Ann manage to tree the raccoon, but having seen how old and smart the ghost coon is, Billy cannot bring himself to kill it. Billy tries to stop the Pritchards from killing the raccoon, leading to a fight with Rubin. The Pritchards' dog Old Blue joins the fight, provoking Old Dan and Little Ann to attack Old Blue to drag him away from Billy. Rubin tries to drive Billy's dogs away with Billy's axe, but trips, falls on the blade, and dies. Billy is deeply troubled by the tragic turn of events, but does not regret his choice to spare the ghost coon.

    Billy's grandfather enters him into a championship coon hunt against experienced hunters. Before the main hunt starts Billy enters Little Ann into a beauty hound competition. She wins, so Billy gets to take home a small silver cup as his prize. The hunt is scheduled during a particularly cold week, and many of the other hunters are forced to give up. However, Billy, who is used to mountain winters, is able to reach the final round. On the last night, Old Dan and Little Ann trap three raccoons in a single tree, but a sudden blizzard forces Billy to take shelter. The following morning, the dogs are found covered in ice but still circling the tree. All three raccoons are captured and Billy and his dogs win the championship and a $300 prize.

    One night while the trio is hunting, a mountain lion attacks the dogs. Billy fights to save his dogs, but the mountain lion turns on him. The dogs manage to save Billy by killing the mountain lion, but Old Dan later dies of his injuries. Over the next few days, Little Ann loses the will to live and finally dies of grief atop Old Dan's grave, leaving Billy heartbroken.

    Billy's father tries to comfort his son by explaining that he and Billy's mother have long wished to move to town where their children can get an education, but could not afford to do so without the extra money brought in by Billy's hunting. Knowing that Billy's dogs would suffer in town and that Billy would be devastated to leave them behind, they intended to allow Billy to live with his grandfather. Billy's father believes that God took the dogs as a sign that the family was meant to stay together.

    On his last day in the Ozarks, Billy visits Old Dan and Little Ann's graves and finds a giant red fern growing between them. Remembering a legend that only an angel can plant a red fern, Billy also comes to believe that perhaps there truly was a higher power at work.

    The adult Billy closes by saying that although he hasn't returned to the Ozarks, he still dreams of visiting his dogs' graves and seeing the red fern again one day.

    Films[edit]

    The novel was the basis of a 1974 film starring Stewart Petersen, James Whitmore, Beverly Garland, and Jack Ging. A sequel was released in 1992, starring Wilford Brimley, Chad McQueen, Lisa Whelchel, and Karen Carlson. The film was remade in 2003 and starred Joseph Ashton, Dabney Coleman, Ned Beatty and Dave Matthews.[2]

    Reception[edit]

    Although sales of the novel began slowly, by 1974 over 90,000 copies had been sold.[3] In 2001, Publishers Weekly estimated that it had sold 6,754,308 copies.[4]

    There is a statue of Billy and his dogs at the Idaho Falls Public Library.[5]

    What is the time frame for Where the Red Fern Grows?

    Where the Red Fern Grows Statue at the Idaho Falls, ID public library.

    Characters in the book[edit]

    • Billy, a ten-year-old boy who lives in the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma
    • Little Ann, Billy's girl pup
    • Old Dan, Billy's boy pup
    • Mama, Billy's mother
    • Papa, who buys Billy the traps and teaches him how to use them
    • Grandpa, Billy's grandfather and owner of the country general store
    • Billy's 3 sisters
    • Rubin Pritchard, who dies of an axe injury after he attempts to attack Billy's dogs
    • Rainie Pritchard, Rubin's younger brother and a troublemaker. He idolized his older brother, when Rubin died Rainie was devastated.
    • The Marshal of Tahlequah
    • Old Man Hatfield, a neighbor of Billy's
    • Mr. Kyle
    • Mr. Benson, another coonhunter
    • Dr. Lathman, another coonhunter

    See also[edit]

    • Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard
    • Rainbow Bridge (pets)
    • The Hunt (The Twilight Zone)
    • Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (Kuru) from eating squirrel brains.[6][7]

    References[edit]

    1. ^ "Where the Red Fern Grows Discussion Guide - Scholastic.com". scholastic.com.
    2. ^ Shipley, Jonathan (November 20, 2021). "Here Lies Troop". Dog News. p. 90. Retrieved April 10, 2022. Only Coonhounds Need Apply at Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Cemetery in Tuscumbia Alabama
    3. ^ "The Deseret News - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
    4. ^ "All-Time Bestselling Children's Books". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
    5. ^ "Wilson Rawls". Idaho Falls Public Library. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
    6. ^ Blakeslee, Sandra (29 August 1997). "Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels' Brains". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
    7. ^ Rettner, Rachael (October 15, 2018). "Man Dies from Extremely Rare Disease After Eating Squirrel Brains". LiveScience. Retrieved April 9, 2022.

    • Oracle Think Quest, Education Foundation: Where the Red Fern Grows.
    • SparkNotes: Where the Red Fern Grows.

    Where does Red Fern take place?

    Northeastern Oklahoma in a valley in the Ozarks.

    How old was Billy at the end of Where the Red Fern Grows?

    At the end of the flashback in Where the Red Fern Grows, Billy is twelve years old.

    Is Where the Red Fern grow a true story?

    Where the Red Fern Grows is a perfect example of autobiographical fiction. Its author, Wilson Rawls, used events from his personal life as the foundation for the book. He bases the main character, Billy, on himself as a young boy. Like Billy, Rawls grew up poor in the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma on a farm.