Loving Literature

One morning, after I had been out the night before, I was surprised to discover Hannah reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I loved the book when I read it in fifth grade, but the story deals with death and sadness and growing up, and I did not know if my six year old could understand the themes of the book. Additionally, the book has 249 pages with no pictures, and I doubted that she would have the patience the finish it. About a month later, Hannah has proven me wrong!

As she read the story, she often discussed the story and the themes with us, celebrating the victories and mourning the losses. She became so attached to Old Dan and Little Ann that I began to worry about how she would handle their deaths at the end of the book. But, though she definitely expressed sadness when she finished, she also says that the book is her new favorite book.

Today, I suggested that she write a book report about the story, perhaps to read to her class at school. She happily agreed. This is what she wrote, with some corrected punctuation and spelling (though she only spelled two or three words wrong and used periods fairly well this time).

"I read Where the Red Fern Grows! At the beginning, a boy wanted two coon hounds. Then he prayed to God so he could get two coon hound pups. He got two coon hound pups. On the first day of hunting, his dogs treed a coon. He chopped a tree down and got a coon.

Then, he caught another coon! And another coon. Then, one night there was a blizzard. Little Anne got stuck on the ice! How could he help her? He got a cane and helped little Ann! They went home. The next day he went hunting with with some kids for two dollars. He did not want to kill the ghost coon. One kid died. Then he went home.

One day, he entered a contest. Little Ann won a silver cup. Then he caught the most coons and won the gold cup. They camped. They went home and he gave a gold cup to his sister, a silver cup to his other sister, and a dollar to his third sister. The next day, he went hunting again.

Then, a mountain lion attacked them. Then, Old Dan died, and Little Ann was so sad she died. They were in graves. There was a red fern in the middle. The red fern was very special. It helped him not be sad."

Hannah added a cover page and a couple of pictures at the end, and she plans to bring the whole thing in to school to share with her class on Monday. Her love of books continues to amaze and delight me. I wonder what she will decide to read next...