Where the Red Fern Grows | Plot Summary

Where the Red Fern Grows Overview

Where the Red Fern Grows is a love story about Billy Coleman and two redbone coonhounds during the Great Depression.

Ten-year-old Billy was consumed by a desire to possess such hounds and hunt the Illinois River bottoms for Mr. Ringtail near his home in northeastern Oklahoma. Just any old dog would not do. They had to be good redbone coonhounds. Since his parents were unable to grant his request for dogs, Billy prayed and felt God surely would help him and give him heart, courage, and determination. He found an ad for the kind of dogs he wanted in a sporting magazine left at a campsite by some fishermen. He dug a K. C. Baking Powder can out of the trash and cleaned it up to use as a bank for his money and set about earning the necessary fifty dollars, a nickel and a dime at a...
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