One of my favorite books is “Summer of the Monkeys” by Wilson Rawls. I’ve read it countless times since my first time when I was 9. I read it to the boys last year and they enjoyed it as well.
A couple of years ago I decided to read Wilson Rawl’s more famous novel, “Where the Red Fern Grows.” I knew the premise but still cried WAY too much when I got to the end. Why did Old Dan and Little Ann have to die? And Ann missing Dan so much that she died – that’s just cruel! To sum up, I didn’t like the book and have no intention to ever read it again.
A couple of weeks ago, Ricky came home from school on library day excited to show me his book choice. He held up “Where the Red Fern Grows” and I laughed. I told him I didn’t like that book but he should go ahead and read it. Naturally, Ricky wanted to know why I didn’t like it and, naturally, I didn’t tell him. I told him to read it first and we’d discuss it then.
Ricky will often read more than one book at a time and I’d forgotten about “Where the Red Fern Grows.” That is, I forgot about it until one night after all the boys were in bed and Kevin was gone to a meeting. I was watching some TV when my Ricky came downstairs with tears still on his cheeks.
I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he’d just finished the book – immediately I understood. It just happened to be the one year anniversary of our own Trouble passing away. I held Ricky and cried with him as he said, “That is so sad. And Little Ann losing the will to live … that’s just like [sob – choke – sob] Daisy after Trouble died.”
We mourned for a few minutes and then we laughed about how I told him that I didn’t like the book. He did scold me a little bit for not telling him, but he quickly forgave me. He said it was a good book, just so sad!
He cried a bit the next morning over breakfast about it as well. Ricky is a bit too tenderhearted for that kind of story.
Maybe I am as well. I miss those big puppies, too.
