| Booktalk
#1
A ten
year old country boy has this thing about hunting. He waits years earning
enough to buy his own coon dogs. All the while, he is listening to Grandpa's
stories and tricks. His mom lets go as he spends nights catching coons
with his dogs. We watch him learn the woods and we witness the lessons
in fidelity that his dogs teach. An exciting conclusion is a hunting contest
that pits the best dogs against human frailty and the harsh Ozark elements.
Booktalk
#2
A
boy named Billy Coleman who lives in the Oklahoma Ozarks wants to buy two
coon hounds, but his parent can’t afford to buy them for Billy. Billy works,
buys the coons, trains them and they turn out to be the best hound dogs
in the Ozarks. They win the Gold Cup for the coon hunt. One night, he went
hunting and they treed a mountain lion, he jumps out of the tree and the
fight begins. Will the coon hounds win or is the mountain lion to much
for the little hounds? (Kurtis Dake, student, Mansfield High School)
Booktalk
#3
Billy
is a kid who is sick for dogs. He wants only one type of dog and that is
a red boned coon hound. Billy works for 2 years to get enough money for
his dogs. He finally gets enough money and buys the dogs at his grandpa’s
store. Billy went to town about 30 miles down stream to get his dogs at
a packaging store. Billy spends the night in a cave along the river. However,
Billy encounters a mountain lion. How will Billy make it out of the cave
and make it back to his house? (Callen Calkins, student, Mansfield
High School)
Booktalk
#4
Have you ever wanted something
so bad it made you sick? In the book Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson
Rawls, the main character Billy wants two coon hound hunting dogs so bad
it makes him sick and his mama is very worried about him. All he
can do is eat, sleep, and dream coon hounds. After working really
hard for two years, he saves up enough money and finally gets two coon
hounds of his own. Billy works with his dogs everyday and trains
Old Dan and Little Ann into the best coon hunting dogs in Cherokee county.
When Billy's grandpa invites Billy to go to a coon hunting competition,
Billy and his dogs tree the most coons and gain the respect of many hunters.
As the story goes on Old Dan and Little Ann prove to be more than just
hunting dogs, they turn out to be Billy's best friends and end up saving
his life. (Stefanie Rogers, sr-rogers@wiu.edu, college student)
Booktalk #5
You may remember when you would
do anything for a dog when you were a kid, or maybe your kids want a dog
so badly it pains them not to have one. Fortunately, I have never
experienced this because ever since I was born my family has always owned
at least one dog.
The book Where the Red Fern
Grows takes place in the Ozark Mountains in Oklahoma during the Great Depression.
During this time all the people were going through a struggle, especially
farmers. Since there were very few jobs available a lot of people
had a hard time buying food for the week.
In this book a boy named Billy
desperately wanted two good hunting dogs. He didn’t
want to settle for just a regular dog; he wanted good hunting dogs.
In addition to that, he wanted two of them; one would not do for Billy.
Good hunting dogs were more expensive than just an ordinary dog.
Therefore, since times were tough, Billy’s father was unable
to afford those dogs. That is when Billy decided he was going to
work really hard for these dogs. He sold goods to the fisherman,
and save every last penny he earned.
When Billy finally had enough
money to buy the dogs he snuck his way into town to get the dogs.
While on the way back home Billy and the dogs get tired so Billy decides
to sleep with the dogs in a cave for the night. However, Billy and
the dogs stumble upon a mountain lion. Read Where the Red Fern Grows
to find out what happens next. (Nathan Kruse, nkruse28@hotmail.com,
college student)
Booktalk #6
"I was ten years old when I
first became infected with this terrible disease. I'm sure no boy in the
world had it worse than I did. It's not easy for a young boy to want a
dog and not be able to have one. It starts gnawing on his heart, and gets
all mixed up in his dreams. It gets worse and worse, until finally it becomes
almost unbearable."
Wilson Rawls sends us
on an exciting journey with Billy Colman a young boy who has a big heart
and determination to get what he wants. After two years of hard work and
saving Billy gets his dream, two coonhound pups. Through out the book Billy,
Old Dan, and Little Ann have many wild hunting adventures through the hills
and bottoms of the Ozarks. But where there is something good there is something
sad. For more about a boy and his two dogs and the legend of the red fern
read Where the Red Fern Grows. It's about love and adventure that will
touch your heart forever. (Ashley Cox, ar-king@wiu.edu, college student) |
