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Where the Red Fern Grows is an inspirational 1961 family adventure novel by American author Wilson Rawls about a boy who acquires and trains two [Red Bone Coon Hound] hunting dogs. It was made into a popular 1974 film starring Stewart Petersen, James Whitmore and Beverly Garland. The film was remade in 2003 and starred Joseph Ashton, Dabney Coleman, Ned Beatty and Dave Matthews. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band formed in New York City in 1981. ... Sonic Youth is the debut EP by Sonic Youth. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Wilson Rawls sep 1913 - 16 December 1984), born Woodrow Wilson Rawls, was an American author. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Childrens books redirects here. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Doubleday is one of the largest book publishing companies in the world. ... See also: 1960 in literature, other events of 1961, 1962 in literature, list of years in literature. ... ISBN redirects here. ... For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... Wilson Rawls sep 1913 - 16 December 1984), born Woodrow Wilson Rawls, was an American author. ... Whitmore in The Asphalt Jungle James Allen Whitmore (born October 1, 1921) is an American film actor. ... Beverly Garland (born Beverly Lucy Fessenden on October 17, 1926) is a veteran American film and television actress with a half-century of credits, from cult 1950s B movies to the hit WB series 7th Heaven. ... Joseph Ashton Joseph Ashton (born Joseph Ashton Valencia on November 18, 1986) is an American film and voice actor. ... Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. ... Ned Thomas Beatty (born July 6, 1937) is an Academy Award-nominated American character actor. ... For other persons named David Matthews, see David Matthews (disambiguation). ...

Plot summary

In the opening scene of the novel, the main character, Billy Coleman, a grown man , is leaving work for home for the day. On his way home, he witnesses a dogfight - all the town dogs are attacking a Redbone Coonhound, who is fighting back valiantly. He steps in, scaring away the attackers, and coaxes the hound out. He sees that the hound is starving and dirty, and takes him home to feed and wash him. The dog leaves for his destination the next day, and Billy knows better than to stop him. Seeing the coonhound makes Billy recall the two coonhounds he owned as a boy. The story then continues as a flashback from his childhood. In literature, film, television and other media, a flashback (also called analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. ...

Billy grew up in the Ozark Mountains on a little farm with his parents and three younger sisters. Billy's sole desire is to have a pair of coonhound dogs. He asks his parents for a pair of hunting hounds, but since the family is poor, all his father can offer him is a farm collie from next door's farm. Billy becomes physically sick for want of the dogs. Then he decides to earn the dogs himself after finding a magazine with a section that advertised dogs for sale. The magazine was discarded by fishermen. On the bank where they fish, Billy offers a prayer to God to help him get his dogs. Billy does odd jobs and sells food and bait to the fishermen to earn money. After two years, he earns enough, and his grandfather orders the dogs. When the paper confirming the purchase comes back, Grandpa tells Billy that someone will bring him to town next week to fetch his pups. However, Billy is too excited and walks to town that very night to fetch his pups from the train station in Tahlequah. After a couple of misadventures in town, Billy manages to get his pups. He carries them home in a gunny sack. On the way home he stops by the fishermen's bank, where he had first said his prayer. He tries to think of names for his dogs, but cannot think of any. Finally, he takes a look around and sees that a fisherman had carved the names Dan and Ann on a nearby tree. Billy decides to name his dogs Old Dan and Little Ann. This article is about the Ozark Plateau. ... The Rough Collie is arguably the most-recognized collie breed The Welsh Sheepdog is a landrace working type, similar to the ancestors of many other collies This Bearded Collie shows how different collie breeds can be from each other This article is about Collie dogs. ... For other uses, see Farm (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Categories: Stub ... For other uses, see Prayer (disambiguation). ... This article is about the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Tahlequah may refer to: Tahlequah, Oklahoma Tahlequah, Washington This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Gunnery Sergeant insignia (U.S. Marine Corps) Gunnery Sergeant is the seventh enlisted rank in the U.S. Marine Corps, just above Staff Sergeant and below Master Sergeant, and is a non-commissioned officer. ...

Billy realizes that Old Dan is the muscle of the team, since he is larger and more muscular. Little Ann was probably the runt of the litter, but she is a very bright dog. Billy trains his dogs with a coon skin after trapping one in a controversial method. He drags the coon skin along the ground to leave a scent, and he has his dogs follow the scent. He teaches them every trick he has ever heard of.

When hunting season comes, Billy is very excited and immediately starts out. His dogs rustle up a "coon", or raccoon and manage to chase it up the tallest tree in the forest, a sycamore. He knows that if he doesn't get the coon out of the tree his dogs won't trust him any more. He sets to work chopping down the tree. After a couple of days, the tree still hasn't fallen, and he is ready to give up. Billy then prays to God to help him bring down the tree. After this prayer, a strange wind blows the tree down without even rustling the branches of other nearby trees. His dogs get the raccoon and Billy decides that the wind was an act of God. Sycamore is a name applied at various times and places to three very different types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. ... For the river, see Raccoon River. ...

Billy goes out hunting almost every night. That winter, the price of coon skins is high due to a surge in popularity of their fur in the use of coats. He brings the pelts to his Grandfather's store to be sold. Together, he and Old Dan and Little Ann perform some amazing feats hunting coons in the Ozarks and earn local fame. For other uses, see Winter (disambiguation). ... A second season episode of Masters of Horror directed by Dario Argento and starring John Saxon and Meat Loaf about stolen racoon pelts that attack anyone unlucky enough to wear them. ...

After a while, two boys named Rainie and Rubin from the Pritchard family challenge Billy. They claim that in their region there is an old coon who can disappear, and that their blue tick hound has never managed to bring this coon down. They make a bet with him that Old Dan and Little Ann could not manage to run down this coon. At first, Billy does not want to bet but Grandpa pushes him into it. Billy meets up with the Pritchard boys a day later to hunt the "ghost" coon. His dogs manage to tree the coon after a lot of clever tricks from the coon, but as the Pritchards promised, the coon disappears. The dogs are bewildered by this and, after a lot of searching, are ready to give up. Billy pays his bet. However, at the last minute, Little Ann catches the scent of the coon on the wind. It turns out that the coon's disappearance act was simple: he walked out to the end of a long branch and dropped down on to a fence post, which turned out to be hollow. he does not want to kill such a clever old coon. The Pritchard boys don't understand and call him a coward, but Billy doesn't change his mind. At this moment, the Pritchards' hunting hound walks up. The Pritchard hound attacks Old Dan while the elder Pritchard boy attacks Billy. Billy tells him to stop so they can separate their hounds, but the Pritchards are not worried since their dog is bigger and stronger than Old Dan. However, Little Ann runs in to help Old Dan. When the blue tick hound is about to die, The elder Pritchard then grabs Billy's axe and runs toward them, intending to separate them. He calls to the Pritchards to take care of their dog, but neither of them move. Then Rubin trips, allowing Billy to grab his dogs. The younger Pritchard, Rainie, is shocked. Billy soon realizes Rubin had fallen on the axe, killing him. Axe For other uses, see Axe (disambiguation). ... Rubin can refer to the following people: Alan Rubin, American musician Chanda Rubin (b. ...

Several weeks later, Grandpa enters Billy into a championship raccoon hunt, pitting Billy against grown men and the finest hounds in all the country. Entrants come from Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and other states. Little Ann wins the beauty pageant at this hunt, earning a little silver cup. When they go hunting the first time, the pair of hounds tree three coons, qualifying them for the final round. During the final round, the pair tree one coon before a blizzard comes up. Billy, his father, Grandpa, and the judge lose track of the dogs. Finally, after half the night, they find them circling a tree in a gully. Billy's father chops down the tree and three coons come running out. The dogs dispatch two of them, but the third gets away. They need one more coon to win the championship, but since the blizzard is still going on Billy does not want his dogs to chase the coon for fear of them freezing. However, against his wishes, the dogs chase the coon. Billy and the rest of the company wait out the blizzard in the gully. In the morning, the hunters discover the two dogs covered with ice unceasingly running around a tree. All the hunters help Billy melt the ice off his dogs. Then they watch as the trio take care of the last coon. Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann win the hunt and receive the championship gold cup as well as a jackpot. This article is about the U.S. State. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Oklahoma (disambiguation). ... A beauty contest, or beauty pageant, is a competition between people, based largely, though not always entirely, on the beauty of their physical appearance. ... This article is about the winter storm condition. ... Gully in El Paso County, Colorado, USA. A gully is a landform created by running water eroding sharply into a hillside. ...

With the money that Billy's hounds have earned, his parents have saved up enough for Billy's family to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma. This has been his mother's dream for a long time, since she wants the children to have a proper education. He takes his hounds out one evening and encounters a mountain lion (devil cat of the Ozarks), which the hounds fight to protect Billy. Billy helps them by swinging his axe at the cat. Old Dan receives a gash across the stomach among numerous other wounds. His entrails come out and and he has to be sewn up by Billy's mother. Despite all their attention, Old Dan dies from the severe injuries and loss of blood at their home. With her companion gone, Little Ann loses her will to live and she dies lying by his grave. Billy's mother reveals to him that she and Billy's father had planned to let Billy remain with his dogs at Grandpa's place, since they knew how much he loved his dogs. However, she says that the Lord hates to see a family separated, and that this is a sign from Him to help the family stay together. As the family is about to move out the following spring, and Billy visits their grave one last time. A sacred red fern grows over both their graves. Billy recalls a local legend about how two Native American children had gotten lost in a storm and frozen to death lying next to each other. They were found in the spring time with a beautiful red fern growing over their bodies. It was said that only an angel could plant the seed of a red fern. The whole family is in awe of this rare and unique plant, and they carry the memory of the red fern with them to town. Billy never returns to the Ozarks but in his memories, he will always be with his dogs. Downtown Tulsa Tulsa is the second-largest city in Oklahoma. ... Binomial name Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771) The puma (Puma concolor) is a type of large cat found in North, Central and South America. ... Disembowelment is evisceration, or the removing of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. ... Ancient unreadable gravestones mark the position of graves in the parish churchyard at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England A grave is a place where the body of a dead animal, generally human, is buried, often after a funeral. ... This article is about the group of pteridophyte plants. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. ... This article is about the supernatural being. ...

External links

• Where the Red Fern Grows (1974) at the Internet Movie Database
• Where the Red Fern Grows (2003) at the Internet Movie Database