By WILSON RAWLS By WILSON RAWLS Created by Alford, Chenault (Bussey)

Published in 1961

Author Wilson Rawls grew up in the Ozarks during the Great Depression, and spent his childhood much like the protagonist, Billy Colman.

About the Author Born Woodrow Wilson Rawls in 1913 Grew up in Scraper & Tahlequah, OK Did not attend school regularly He loved reading, especially Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. He read it to his dogs. At age 10 he wrote a powerful boy and dog story of his own, in the sand

About the Author (part 2) He grew up in a poor family, & had little formal education His father told him he could do anything. Rawls lived during the Great Depression (1929), which was a time of great poverty. He took any job he could find. 1961: published Where the Red Fern Grows Died in 1984

Pictures from the Great Depression Jobs were scarce. Poverty hit the middle class. People were losing everything, including their homes. Americans had hard times for over ten years.

Bread lines stretched for blocks. Bread lines in New York City (1935)

Children of rehabilitation clinic in Arkansas (Circa 1935)

Migrant family looking for work in the pea fields of California. (Circa 1935)

A Hooverville in Central Park.

WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS Takes place during the 1920s in the Ozarks of Oklahoma Tells story of Billy Colman and his two red-bone hounds, Old Dan & Little Ann.

Where the Red Fern Grows At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the adult Billy Colman. A dogfight stirs memories of when Billy was a child who wanted nothing more than a redbone hound. The story is told in FLASHBACK – recalling events from the past

Chapter I – Grown-up Billy rescues a redbone hound from a dogfight.

FLASHBACK! Chapter I - Bill sits back in his chair by the fireplace, looking at the silver and gold cups on the mantle. FLASHBACK!

SETTING: The OZARK MOUNTAINS

Billy’s family is poor, and lives on a farm in the Ozarks, on Cherokee land. Billy’s dad works the land with a mule.

SETTING: The Illinois River, Oklahoma, in the Ozarks

Two ads for the MAXWELL car

Chapter III Billy’s parents give him 3 small steel traps to satisfy his desire to hunt.

Leafy autumn trail through the heavily wooded Ozarks.

Chapter III Billy saves his money for two years in an old KC Baking Powder can.

A redbone hound looks like…

MAP of OKLAHOMA TAHLEQUAH Billy lives in the hills about 20 miles from Tahlequah.

Chapter V Billy leaves home without telling anyone to pick up his pups at the depot in Tahlequah. He carries them in a gunny sack.

Chapter V In Robber’s Cave, Billy and the pups are startled by the scream of a mountain lion.

a BRACE and BIT is used to drill holes BITBRACE

Illinois River with fallen tree. Billy hunts in places like this.

Illinois River, in the Ozarks

Chapter VII - Billy traps a coon using Grandpa’s trap

Dan and Ann tree their first coon in the big tree. Billy vows to do the rest. CHAPTER VIII

Chapter IX - Grandpa teaches Billy to use a scarecrow to keep the coon in the big tree.

Chapter X – With his first hide, mama makes Billy a coonskin cap.

Chapter X Grandpa tells Billy that the price of raccoon hides has gone up, due to the popularity of coonskin coats.

A New England man wearing a coonskin coat.

Billy trains Dan and Ann to hunt racoons in the rugged, flinty hills.

MUSKRAT Old Dan somehow gets himself stuck under the river bank in the den of a - Chapter X -

Ch. X Old Dan follows a racoon up a hollow tree. Billy is afraid that he might jump out.

Billy climbs the tree and sees the Ghost Coon, but refuses to kill it. Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII – Rubin Pritchard grabs Billy’s double-bitted axe, intending to save Old Blue from Dan and Ann. DOUBLE-BITTED AXE

Chapter XIII Billy sneaks out to the Pritchard’s home, places flowers on Rubin’s grave.

Billy’s first cup of coffee makes him feel like a man. Chapter XV – Billy, Papa, and Grandpa set out in the buggy for the championship campsite.

Chapter XV One night, while camped on the way to the competition, Billy wonders if he hears two screech owls, a sign of bad luck.

At the championship, Billy sees At the championship, Billy sees BLACK AND TAN HOUNDS…

…BLUE TICK HOUNDS,

…WALKER HOUNDS,

…BLOOD HOUNDS,

& REDBONE “coon” HOUNDS.

Chapter XVI - Billy draws the fourth night of the tournament. RaccoonsversusBilly’s hounds

CHAPTER XVII Grandpa twists his ankle in the woods, and gets lost from the group. Old Dan and Little Ann also get separated during the storm.

“They looked like white ghosts….They’re frozen solid. They’re nothing but white ice from the tips of their noses to the ends of their tails.” Chapter XVIII

Billy and his dogs win the gold cup full of money, and the silver cup of dog beauty contest. ANN

Chapter XVIII - Billy takes the cups and the $300 home to his mother and sisters. Mama says her prayers have been answered. OLD DAN LITTLE ANN BILLY #1

A bobcat is not as deadly as… …the devil cat of the Ozarks, the mountain lion. CHAPTER XIX

Chapter XIX The scourge of the hills, the mountain lion.

PUMA, COUGAR, or MOUNTAIN LION

“I’m sure the red fern has grown…hiding it’s secret beneath those long, red leaves, but it wouldn’t be hidden from me for part of my life is buried there, too.”

Chapter XIX – Billy’s dogs have earned enough money for the family to move out of the hills and into the city, where the children can get an education.

THEMES of the novel LOVE LOYALTY FAITH HARD WORK BRAVERY TENACITY