Greta Takes the Road

Dogs are my favorite animal.  Are dogs even animals?  Aren't they really furry people?  They are in my family.  I think that is why books about dogs are especially difficult for me to read.  I don't like movies when a dog inexplicably wanders into the story.  I am sure his demise is eminent.  I will stop watching. 

This reaction  started with the movie  Old Yeller. After that I could never read the book and I have always been wary of Walt Disney.  I only read Sounder because I was supposed to teach it. I requested a grade change the next year.  I think I may be the only person whose heart broke for Cujo. He wasn't naturally mean.  He didn't ask to be bitten.  I really felt sorry for him.  I hated that old drunk too.  It was his fault the family left.  

So I am not sure why I picked up Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.  I do know why.  I was with my cousin one Saturday in the fall.  We were wandering in and out of antique (really junk) stores.  I couldn't quite understand why she was so excited to find a Baking Soda tin.  She had to have it to use in her class when they read Where the Red Fern Grows.  The students would finally be able to picture how Billy saved his money.  She assured me I could borrow it when I taught the book.  "I don't teach the book."  In fact, I had never heard of the book.  She fixed that.  As soon as we finished up in that store, we headed to a book store where she bought me my first copy of the book.  After lunch, I headed home to a Saturday night alone with Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann.

This book should have landed at the top of my Do Not Read list and definitely should head the Never Read Again list but it remains one of my all time favorites.  I used to read it to every 7th grade class I taught.  It became the class of legends.  New classes would ask, "Are you going to read us the book that makes you cry?"  Everyone wanted to be the person sitting next to me when I started sobbing because they knew I'd hand them the book to "pick up where I left off."  The place where I begin to cry changes every year.  It gets closer and closer to the beginning.  Honestly, when I picked up the book to take these pictures, I flipped open and started reading.  I had to stop on page two.  This is the very beginning - the first part of the frame story - not even into the real plot.  I just know what is coming.

I can't believe kids today don't read this book.  I'm not sure there is a movie and it will never replace the book.  I don't care if it wins every Oscar there is.  Nothing can be better than the words that come along the Book Road to "the beautiful valley far back in the rugged Ozarks." 

My dogs mean every bit as much to me as Old Dan and Little Ann did to Billy.  I have to stop thinking about it now.  I can't see the computer screen any more.  I'm crying.  I hate dog books.