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    Where the Red Fern Grows
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    Where the Red Fern Grows
    Unavailable
    Where the Red Fern Grows
    Audiobook6 hours

    Where the Red Fern Grows

    Written by Wilson Rawls

    Narrated by Anthony Heald

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A beloved classic that captures the powerful bond between man and man's best friend.

    Billy has long dreamt of owning not one, but two, dogs. So when he's finally able to save up enough money for two pups to call his own-Old Dan and Little Ann-he's ecstatic. It doesn't matter that times are tough; together they'll roam the hills of the Ozarks.

    Soon Billy and his hounds become the finest hunting team in the valley. Stories of their great achievements spread throughout the region, and the combination of Old Dan's brawn, Little Ann's brains, and Billy's sheer will seems unbeatable. But tragedy awaits these determined hunters-now friends-and Billy learns that hope can grow out of despair, and that the seeds of the future can come from the scars of the past.

    A Top 100 Children's Novel, School Library Journal's A Fuse #8 Production
    A Must-Read for Kids 9 to 14, NPR
    Winner of Multiple State Awards
    Over 7 million copies in print!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2000
    ISBN9780553752199
    Unavailable
    Where the Red Fern Grows

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    Reviews for Where the Red Fern Grows

    4/5

    2,872 ratings131 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      When I felt tears prickling the back of my eyes in the first chapter of this book, I knew I was in trouble. By the last page, I was curled in the foetal position sobbing my heart out. This truly is a coming-of-age classic and, while I didn't enjoy the way Billy and his two beloved hounds, Little Anne and Old Dan, hunted raccoons for sport, considering the time frame and setting of this book, I can imagine many teenage boys doing exactly the same thing.I loved the beautiful descriptions of the hills, rivers and animals of the Cherokee country, they brought the book to life. The special bond between Billy and is two dogs was truly touching, as was the close relationship between Old Dan and Little Annie. Having pet dogs all my life I can understand how much Billy loved them; their loyalty, faithfulness, devotion and unending love always astounds me. So if you haven't read “Where the Red Fern Grows” before, do yourself a favour and grab a copy, but make sure you have boxes (yes boxes, not a box) of Kleenex close by. A beautiful, moving story.
    • 1/5
      In all honesty, it's a well written book... however, I've had to read and reread this book in class (YAY for in class reading o.O) through my junior high and high school years so often (thanks to many moves across the country) that I really, truly, HATE this book.
    • 4/5
      I decided to read this since Jim has it on his all time favorites list. I enjoyed it, but I guess not as much as a dog lover would.
    • 5/5
      An inspiring (and heartbreaking) story about a young boy and his two dogs in the Ozark Mountains.
    • 2/5
      At the time I enjoyed this book more than most classic books that are read in school, but I just don't think i could get past the end enough to be able to enjoy the book as a whole.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful story for any age. Read to all my kids and they enjoyed, but my youngest daughter (age 9) got very sad with the ending listening to this Book on Tape, so caution your children, if they are very sensitive and love animals that it has a sad ending.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful nostalgic book from my childhood.
    • 5/5
      An inspiring (and heartbreaking) story about a young boy and his two dogs in the Ozark Mountains.
    • 3/5
      A coon hunting obsessed teenager in the Ozarks saves nickels and dimes for two years to get two red hounds, trains and hunts them for an unspecified number of months, wins an champion contest and loses them when they save his life from a mountain lion This book is so whitebread it leaks mayo. And for a non-Christian the idea that God answers prayers for hound dogs and gives help felling trees seems gobsmackingly self-centered. And the Red Fern of the title is a legend tacked on with a complete corsage of sentimentality at the end. All set in a rural poverty deep enough to prevent the purchase the two red hounds, but free of any mention of tapeworm, toothache, or indeed any childhood illness.
    • 5/5
      Captures the powerful bond between man and his best friend. A very good book but very sad in the end. Children and adults will love this story which is an interesting classic.
    • 4/5
      Warning-- This book is a serious tear jerker. Being that I am a very emotional reader, I don't know that I would have picked it up if I hadn't seen a fifth grade teacher read it to her class and have every student become entranced by the story. This book is beautifully written and so heart warming. I completely get why students enjoy it and I will recommend it to any student that loves animals, or emotional stories. However, it will have me in tears every time I read it. Something that I did not enjoy about the book was the way that the book refers to women by saying that women think differently than men. If I do read this book, I will have to address this.
    • 5/5
      Captivating, heartwarming... devastating. A must read for any book lover!
    • 4/5
      As a dog lover who raised her own puppy, I find this book incredibly relateable, and the quality of writing is excellent. Though my "story" would be radically different, the sentiments remain the same. I read this for the first time as an adult, and still found it hard to avoid crying, even though I knew it's reputation and *thought* I was ready for it. Fair warning.
    • 5/5
      Captivating, heartwarming... devastating. A must read for any book lover!
    • 5/5
      This is the saddest book I have ever been tortured with reading. I don't even like dogs and it made me cry. I hate this book.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorites growing up, and glad I re-read it. The love that young Billy Coleman has for his two red blood hounds and the devotion and love they have for him still brings tears to my eyes. It is action packed with a variety of coon hunting stories including a coon treed in a sycamore tree too big to cut down, a hunt on a bet, a mishap in in the ice, a hunt for a championship, and a tangle with a mountain lion.
    • 3/5
      Where the Red Fern Grows is a novel about a boy, Billy Coleman, and his two hunting dogs. It is set in the Ozark Mountains of northeast Oklahoma in the early 20th century. Billy is a 10 year old boy who lives with his family on a small farm He decides he wants a couple of hunting dogs and he works and scrimps and saves his money for two long years before he earns enough money to mail order his two dogs. At long last they come a male he names the male puppy "Old Dan" and the female "Little Ann." Billy, with the help of his grandfather, train the dogs to hunt raccoons, "coons."So soon Billy and his two dogs are out hunting coons every night. Billy gets very close to the dogs and they become a loyal and inseparable team and Rawls description of the growing love between the boy and his dogs is the best part of the book along with the descriptions of the rivers, creeks, mountains, valleys in the area. The raccoons don't do as well though. You see Billy and his pups aren't chasing them for the fun of it. Billy is making money by selling the hides and he is getting lots of them. He and his dogs become famous coon hunters and enter a local championship.The book is a good read but it was written in 1961 treads upon modern sensibilities a little bit with the hunting scenes and the gory death scene. It has been made into a movie twice. Once in 1974 and then in 2003. I give the book three stars out of five.
    • 5/5
      Billy is a young boy who if he could have anything it would be hound dogs. Billy loves to watch people go coon hunting and Billy wants to try himself. Billy raises money with the help from other people to buy hound dogs. when Billy has enough money to buy some dogs he goes into town and buys some. Billy loves old Dan and Little Anne. he goes coon hunting with them and plays with them all day long. he loves them to death. in the end the dogs do die. Billy buries them and carves their names into rocks as gravestones. a little red fern pops up at the gravesite for the dogs.I give this book a five star rating. I was one of the best books I have ever read. this book was full of caring and sharing. I think anybody could read this book and enjoy it as much as I did. this book was amazing and inspiring too.
    • 3/5
      I bought this book for my 10 year old nephew that will devour anything with print. While I was waiting for him to come over and claim it, I read it. Where the Red Fern grows is a great story, has many specific details, and gets you deep into this story. The book is just about for anybody who likes a good story with lots of adventure, and swings your emotions through the book from eager and anxious to a glum sad feeling. Who doesn't love a dog? Here you get two dogs.
    • 4/5
      This was the first book that absolutely destroyed me emotionally. Well-written and poignant.
    • 4/5
      Wilson Rawls is one of those classic children's authors that I have deliberately avoided because his books have a reputation for breaking their readers' hearts. But I'm an adult now and well able to handle literary tragedies, right? Well, yes, I suppose. But somehow I still ended up with a painful lump in the throat. Where The Red Fern Grows is a book that made me care, looking ahead worriedly for the coming sorrow. It came, of course. But only as part of a bigger story, resonant, powerful, and very much worth the risk of reading.Billy Colman lives with his family in the Ozark Mountains and his sole desire is to get two hunting hounds. His parents are poor and cannot purchase even one hound for him, let alone two. And so he works relentlessly for two years, saving pennies from selling blackberries, trapping furs, peddling vegetables, and doing anything else a mountain boy can to earn cash. Billy tells the story in the first person, and this narrative device throws us right into his world and keeps us there, cheering him on and celebrating every victory. When Billy finally gets his two beautiful hounds, we are privy to the incredibly moving relationship that forms the heart of the novel.Billy's hounds, Old Dan and Little Ann, are vivid personalities and characters in their own right. They are inseparable from one another and from Billy, and this is the first hint we get of what is coming. (This isn't too spoilery because Rawls hints at tragedy and loss in the first chapter, before he takes up the tale.) Two halves of one whole are always so described when they are split down the middle from one another. Old Dan and Little Ann were doomed from the beginning, because everything living is. When you love someone or something so deeply, you will always get hurt. I think the question that this story asks is whether or not that pain outweighs the love that occasions it.This is certainly not a politically correct book by modern standards, and I can see it falling off a lot of lists in the years to come. There are several blatant references to God helping Billy and answering prayers (!), and very little mercy for the coons he hunts with his dogs. And the family relationships are so healthy! I noticed something disturbing: I kept waiting for the adults to betray Billy or hurt him in some way. It's a sad commentary on what I'm used to in fiction.I listened to this on audiobook read by Anthony Heald, and I can't recommend his narration enough. He has just the right accent for the part, convincing and never overbearing or insulting, and he does a wonderful job with the characters' voices. His is an emotional, engaging read that plays to all the strengths of the novel and unabashedly enters into Billy's struggles. I loved it.One interesting note about this book is that Rawls wrote it once, hated his work and burned it, and later rewrote it at the urging of his wife. I don't know how much the story changed between its two incarnations, but I'm glad Sophie Rawls encouraged her husband to rewrite the book. It's a story well worth telling and Rawls does it skillfully. The dedication is sweet: "To my wonderful wife without whose help this book would not have beenwritten."Recommended for young and old readers alike.
    • 5/5
      The story was very easy to follow because it was so well written. It is a moving story and the narrator is amazing! Thanks!!
    • 5/5
      My uncle Hootie had coon dogs. As young girls, my sister and I were privileged companions in some moon lit, backwoods coon hunting adventures. Of course there was no actual killing, but it was the dogs and the thrill of the pursuit! So many years have passed, but this book brought it all home. Through the travails of the main character Billy in the Ozark Mountains, I have a richer understanding of my Uncle Hootie, one that has always alluded me. This is a wonderful read which includes God, faith, love of family and the sweetness and tenacity in a growing boy's heart.
    • 5/5
      A favorite from my childhood, Where the Red Fern grows is still one of the best books ever written!
    • 5/5
      great sad and realistic story. worth the time to read.
    • 5/5
      I probably read this book 20 times as a kid. This is my original copy, with a bookplate with my name on the inside cover, dated 1990. I have found some childhood classics don't stand up well--this one does. Rawls is masterful with his evocative descriptions and layered emotions. I can see how this book likely had a huge influence on my own writing. The book feels authentic to the Ozarks of the 1920s-1930s, warts and all. It therefore connects to my own family past, as my grandpa's family was starving in Arkansas and fled for California to start over during that time.
    • 5/5
      Such a sad yet heartwarming book. I loved it so much!
    • 2/5
      I read this because it was on the Great American Read list. Am I not the target audience? Am I emotionally stunted because I never owned a dog? Do I just not appreciate kids stories about animals killing animals for sport?

      Whatever the underlying cause, this book was just not for me.

    • 5/5
      My Takeaway

      "It's not easy for a young boy to want a dog and not be able to have one."
      Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows

      As a girl, I never had the opportunity to read Where the Red Fern Grows, but thanks to The Great American Read, I now understand why it is such a loved American classic. Billy, Little Ann, and Old Dan will live in my heart forever. This is a wonderful and sentimental story about the everlasting bond, loyalty, and love between a boy and his dogs. If you have young children, I highly recommend this timeless classic. It is filled with invaluable life lessons and will make you smile, laugh, and cry.
    • 5/5
      Captivating, heartwarming... devastating. A must read for any book lover!