Coraoccllo's Full Review: Wilson Rawls, Barbara T. Doherty, Charlotte S. Jaf...
I don't understand the raves for this book, I really don't. It's okay, it's not garbage, I read it and liked it and will probably let my son read it when he's older.
BUT.
In the first place, the story is predictable. There is no real sense that the boy will fail to buy his dogs, or that the dogs will fail to perform up to expectations. The boy achieves his aims too easily. It would have been difficult to earn the money for these dogs, but we get no sense of that. First he doesn't have the money, then he does. There is no real impression of the hardships involved.
There is an absolutely POINTLESS scene in which a child falls on an axe and dies a slow, horrible death. There is absolutely no reason for such a scene. The child's family comes down from the hills, claims the body, and disappears from the book forever. There is no reason for this scene. It isn't realistic--can you imagine ANY family, even (or perhaps especially) the most bucolic of Mountain Williams, sitting still for the death of their child without an investigation? Well, here it is.
There is no question that the dogs will win the competition. They will.
The death of the dog at the end is pointlessly gory. The idea that the dogs were some sort of angels is stupid and offensive.
Read "Summer of the Monkeys" instead.
With gorgeous new cover art, this beloved American tale about the friendship between a boy and his two dogs has assumed the status of a modern classic...More at HotBookSale
Billy, Old Dan and Little Ann -- a Boy and His Two Dogs... A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old D...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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