Where the Red Fern Grows is a children's novel written by
American author 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
After leaving work one evening, middle-aged Billy Coleman comes
across a dog fight in the street. He sees that an old redbone hound
is being challenged by the neighborhood dogs. Billy can tell that
the tough old hound had traveled a long way. Dormant memories stir
in Billy's heart, and he chases off the other dogs. The old hound
understands that he has found a friend, and willingly goes to
Billy's home, where he cleans and feeds the dog. When the dog is
well again, it becomes restless to leave for home and Billy sets it
free, knowing that the old hound will find its way. This event
compels Billy to reflect on his own past, and the two coonhounds he
had raised and trained when he was a boy in the Ozarks.
Living a simple life in the Ozarks with his parents and three
younger sisters, twelve-year-old Billy's sole desire is to own a
pair of Redbone Coonhounds. He begs his parents for the dogs, but
they tell him that the family cannot afford coonhounds. One day
Billy finds an advertisement in sportsman magazine offering Redbone
Coonhounds in Kentucky for twenty-five dollars each. Billy decides
to earn the money himself. For two years, he does many different
jobs, such as selling goods to fishermen and selling blackberries
and huckleberries to his grandfather. Billy saves his money in an
old K. C. Baking Powder can, and after two years, he finally has
fifty dollars. His grandfather writes to the kennel and discovers
that the dogs have dropped five dollars in price. He sends for two
hound puppies.
The mail buggy does not deliver packages, and so the puppies
have to be delivered to the depot at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Billy
travels on his own by foot to the train station in Tahlequah and
retrieves his pups. With the extra ten dollars, Billy buys gifts
for his family (A pair of overalls for his father, cloth to make
dresses for his mother and sisters, and a bag of candy for his
sisters) before proudly returning home. On the journey home, he
stops to spend the night in Robber's Cave on Sparrow Hawk Mountain.
Here 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 cry of a mountain lion in the
distance. The male puppy boldly goes to mouth of the cave and bays
back a challenge to the big cat, the female puppy soon joins him.
Billy fears for his dogs, and remembers that his father told him
mountain lions were scared of fire, so he rekindles his fire and
waits the night out. In the morning, Billy continues on. He comes
upon a tree with the names Dan and Ann inside a heart carved into
the bark and decides to name his dogs Old Dan and Little Ann.
To train his dogs, Billy captures a raccoon with the help of his
grandfather and uses the pelt to teach Old Dan and Little Ann how
to track and tree a coon. During their training, the dogs'
personalities become more apparent: Old Dan is noted for his
bravery and strength and Little Ann for her intelligence. Both are
fiercely loyal to each other and to Billy.
On the first day of the hunting season, Billy takes his dogs out
for their first hunt. He promises them if they tree a coon, he will
do the rest. The dogs are successful in treeing their first coon in
a large sycamore, which Billy had before nicknamed "the Big Tree",
as it is one of the largest in the mountains. As he tries to call
his dedicated dogs off the hunt, they look to him sadly, and he
resolves to cut down the enormous tree to fulfill his promise, an
exhausting effort that takes him several days of chopping and
blistered hands. In the end, when about to give up for the enormity
of the task, he offers a short prayer for strength to continue. A
wind then picks up and blows the tree over, however it does not
stir any other tree in the woods. Old Dan, and Little Ann take the
coon down.
Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann go out hunting almost every
night. Billy brings more pelts into his grandfather's store than
any other hunter, and the stories of his dogs' unbeatable skills
spread throughout the Ozarks, earning them local fame and the envy
of other coon hunters. Not long after earning local reputation, two
boys named Rainie and Rubin, of the Pritchard family, challenge
Billy to a coon hunting contest. They claim that no hound could
ever tree the "ghost coon," a coon that lives near the Pritchard's
home. Billy tries to ignore the bet, but the Pritchards are cold,
and begin to talk badly of his Grandpa. Billy's Grandpa becomes
furious and tells Billy to accept the bet that his Old Dan, and
Little Ann can tree it. After several hours of hunting and working
through the ghost coon's tricks, Little Ann trees the coon. When
Billy refuses to kill it—having developed a respect for the
animal—Rubin and Rainie get angry, and at that time the Pritchards'
blue tick coonhound comes up and challenges Old Dan. Rubin then
pins Billy down, saying that his dog will easily beat Old Dan,
however, Little Ann joins to protect Old Dan and the blue tick
coonhound quickly loses. Rubin fears for his dog's life, and grabs
Billy's axe and runs toward Old Dan and Little Ann, intending to
kill them. However, Rubin trips and falls on Billy's axe and is
killed.
Several weeks later, Grandpa enters Billy into a championship
coon hunt, putting Billy against experienced hunters and the finest
hounds in all the country. Before the hunt starts, Billy enters
Little Ann into a contest for the best-looking hound, where she
wins a silver cup. On the fourth night of the hunt, Old Dan and
Little Ann tree three coons, qualifying them for the final round.
The sixth night, the dogs tree one coon before a blizzard hits.
Billy, his father, Grandpa, and the judge lose track of the dogs,
and when they finally find them, Billy's Grandpa falls and badly
sprains his ankle so he can't walk. They build a fire, and when
Billy's father chops down the tree, three coons emerge. The dogs
take down two of them, and chase the final coon to another tree. In
the morning, the hunters discover the two dogs covered with ice
circling the base of a tree. This last coon wins them the
championship, and the gold cup.
One night, after the hunt, Billy and his dogs tree a mountain
lion, who attacks them. Billy is nearly killed until the dogs
attack the cat. Old Dan is severely wounded, but holds off the
animal long enough for Billy to deliver the killing blow. Billy
rushes his dogs home, but Old Dan's wounds are mortal and he dies.
Little Ann survives the attack, but dies a few days later by Old
Dan's grave, of starvation. She had missed Old Dan and couldn't
live without him; thus she refused to eat and died. Billy buries
her next to Old Dan, remarking on life not being fair. It is
revealed that the family has been saving the dog's earnings from
Billy's raccoon pelts, as well as the dogs' winnings from the
championship coon hunt. With that money, the family can finally
afford to move to town. It was revealed that Billy would have
remained with his grandfather, and that God may have taken the dogs
in order to prevent the family from being separated.
On the day of their departure, Billy visits his dogs' graves to
say goodbye. Upon arriving, he sees that a large plant has grown
between the two mounds, 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.