Where the Red Fern Grows

[Draz74]

I just read Where the Red Fern Grows. Yes, I'm 25 and I've never read it before ... shut up. :smallwink:

I don't understand what the big deal is. Why the book is famous.

Sure, it was entertaining enough that I read it straight through. Sure, it's impressive that Rawls could write a book that good with such a poor educational background.

But the characters are flat and predictable, the dialogue is boring, there are no subplots worth mentioning, and the climax just honestly doesn't feel all that meaningful. Oh, and the titular Red Fern's appearance was totally non sequiter.

This shocks me, partly because the book is so famous in spite of its mediocrity, but mostly because Rawls' other book, Summer of the Monkeys, is less famous, but is an incredible piece of children's literature. It's like Rawls one day said, "Let's see, I think I'll re-write Red Fern. Only I'll give it some subtlety ... and some complex characters ... and some humor ... and some entertaining dialogue ... and a creative plot rather than an autobiography ... and some religious and familial insights ..." and suddenly he had the writing talents of Harper Lee distill upon him.

I mean, if J.K. Rowling's writing improves to the same degree, between Harry Potter and her next major work, as Rawls' writing did between his two books, she'll be hailed as the female incarnation of Shakespeare.

Anyone else had a similar reaction to these books? Or if anyone read Red Fern and assumed there was no worthy reason to continue perusing works by the same author, I'd definitely exhort you to give Monkeys a try.

[RabbitHoleLost]

I know I read this in third grade.
I just can't remember anything about it except that there were dogs. And a kid.

[toasty]

I know I read this in third grade.
I just can't remember anything about it except that there were dogs. And a kid.

And the dogs died? Which of course, like all other dog books, ruined the story for me.

I hated all dog books, despite loving dogs, because the dogs always died. I will never forgive authors for destorying and murdering my favorite characters and causing me to cry and cry because they killed the coolest characters in the story.

As to Where the Red Fern Grows: I have no clue how well it was written cuz I read it (actually listened to it) when I was young and we didn't do any deep analysis or anything. It was a freaking awesome book (to me at least) until the dogs died. Then it was a horrible, horrible, horrible piece of crap that caused me unnecessary emotional disturbance.

[Quincunx]

Even an excellent author can have some flat books, but even the not-so-good ones are still (usually) good reads. You've piqued my curiosity though, if Where the Red Fern Grows, more well-constructed than many other children's books, was the worse of the two. On the other hand, maybe you just happened to read Summer of the Monkeys at a time when it was especially insightful to your state of mind and attributed more influence to it than it possesses.

[Draz74]

Even an excellent author can have some flat books, but even the not-so-good ones are still (usually) good reads. You've piqued my curiosity though, if Where the Red Fern Grows, more well-constructed than many other children's books, was the worse of the two. On the other hand, maybe you just happened to read Summer of the Monkeys at a time when it was especially insightful to your state of mind and attributed more influence to it than it possesses.

Yeah, give it a shot. I've read Summer of the Monkeys many times, and even as an adult, it wows me every time.