Little Arliss

Old Yeller #3

by Fred Gipson, Ronald Himler

A small twelve-year old boy's determination to prove he is tough sets him on the trail of a runaway horse.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Dogs, Classics, Animals, Middle Grade, Childrens

83 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1978

About the author

Also known as Frederick Benjamin Gipson. He is best known for writing the 1956 novel Old Yeller, which became a popular 1957 Walt Disney film.

Reviews

[Mischenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roughly six years has passed since the last book and Arliss is now twelve years old. Frankly, he’s sick and tired of being called “little” and just wants respect from the adults in his life. Everyone’s constantly telling Arliss that he can’t do something and he’s fed up, so when the chance arises for him to prove himself, he takes it. The settlers are dealing with a crazy horse who’s actually killed a man. They need to catch it and Arliss sees an opportunity to finally prove that he’s old enough to start doing adult tasks. He offers to try, but everyone just laughs at him which makes him even more angry. Not long after, against his father’s orders, Arliss sets out to catch the horse and successfully brings him home. He has plans to work on breaking the horse without his parents permission which is extremely dangerous.

Arliss doesn’t act his age, in fact, he’s the same annoying boy from the previous books who throws rocks at humans that upset him. He’s also very disrespectful toward adults and talks back anytime he’s angry–pretty much all the time.



Arliss hates school and would quit at the drop of a hat if he could. The adults seem way too lenient with him as well. I know parts of the book are meant to be funny and this is a work of fiction; however, I feel like it’s a challenge reading his character at times because I just want to grab him and shake some sense into him.

We did enjoy reading this book and it was such a quick read. I didn’t expect it to be this short at eighty pages or so. It was nice to learn that Travis is now married and that all the previous book characters are living well. Savage Sam was mentioned a few times, but this installment is more about Arliss and the horse. I read that the story was found by Fred Gipson’s son after his death which was unexpected. It’s wonderful that they published it because it’s a nice conclusion.

I really enjoy Fred Gipson’s writing and will likely move on to his other books.

4****

[Cruse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment for me. It seemed like the author did a rush job. The parents portrayed in the Old Yeller book would not have put up with the attitude and disrespect Arliss showed adults. The whole horse catching thing was just too easy. Nothing dealing with an animal is that easy, esp. a wild stud horse. He would have been savy to those types of tricks. Then I don't get why Arliss kept blacking out unless he head butted the horse in the middle of the wild ride. I think if he had taken his time and thought it out, put in more detail, the book could have been awesome. A week of chasing a wild horse - etc.

[Zane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always been rather conflicted about the character of Arliss and throughout the two previous books have never quite been able to make up my mind about him. On the one hand, he has a lot of characteristics that I admire making up the core of his personality, so on that front I am inclined to like him. However, I do not like most of the things which he does, so I've always settled for saying that I "don't like him much".

Well that changed in this book. I still don't stand by all the things he does, but now that I can identify with him as a character, I sure do like him a lot more.

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Arlis was too much of a brat and the author did not depict his age to his actions. I wonder if The author had children and knew how children normaly acted at Arliss's age.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this book was much more to the point than the other two in the series. It almost seemed like an afterthought honestly. However, Arliss was a fun character so I read it quickly.

[AnistainL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Review

Little Arliss


I read the book Little Arliss by Fred Gipson, I could not find the lexile level anywhere but it is meant for 9 - 12 year olds (4th - 6th graders). This book was about a 12 year old boy named Arliss that was tired of his family telling him he was too little to do grown up things. He was tired of them laughing at him and making fun of things that he said and did. One day his dad’s friend came to their house looking for his horse that had run off. Arless said that he could help because he was looking for any reason not to go to school. Yet again they laughed at him and told him he was too little, this made Arliss really mad, but off to school he went. At school he got in fist fight with his friend, got in trouble, and then killed his teacher. He knew he could not go home so he went into the forest where he met a girl named Judy. She gave him an idea how to catch the horse but he didn't want to try it at the time. The next day he decided that maybe the girl's idea was not so bad and that he might try it and took the girl along with him. They sat up in a tree in the forest but eventually they caught the horse. When they got to the barn Arliss wanted to put a saddle on the horse to ride it. When he was going to get down, his mom came out and told him he was too little to ride it which made him mad so he went on the horse. The horse tried every which way to get Arless off but he was holding on to his hair tight. After getting off he fell to his knees and then got up real fast. Arliss fainted from all the things he was going through, to cure him, he needed whiskey. Judy realized she wanted to marry Alriss, but her uncle told her she was too little. Judy and Alriss both discovered that their families don't trust them because they are young.
The theme of this story is don’t grow up too fast. In the story Arliss always tried to do grown up things like catch a wild horse, not listening to his parents, and go off into the woods alone. During the story Arliss kills his teacher by accident while at school. Instead of taking his consequences he runs away. This shows that Arliss is not old enough to make good decisions and that he is trying to grow up too fast. Towards the end of the book, Arliss realizes that there isn’t use arguing with his parents because it wasn't worth his energy and he would be able to show them one day when he was older.
I would recommend this book to kids that are tired of getting called too little to show them that it is ok to be a kid a little bit longer. Overall this is a good book, it's short so if you like to read short books i would recommend this one. I personally thought it was okay . It was pretty easy to read. Some of the parts were confusing though, like why did you have to kill your teacher, and how did you kill your teacher by throwing a rock at his stomach, that just doesn't make sense to me. The end of the book was weird and confusing. The 9 year old girl was trying to marry Arliss, and her uncle told her no and she was like so you lied to me, then she ran out of the room crying. On the other hand my favorite part of the book was when they cured Alriss with whisky and it was just like a “what” moment and it was funny and unexpected.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 star

This is book 3 and the last (that I know of) of the Old Yeller series. This book was nice, filled with adventure similar to the other two. BUT this one was written more 'simple' ( I read the entire thing within an hour) So children that may not be able to read the other two books on their own maybe able to read this one.

Arliss is VERY HYPER in this book, talking back to his parents and getting into trouble. Things I normally don't enjoy reading about. But something about the Coats family I enjoy; although if Arliss had been my child...my goodness!

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arliss Coates now twelve years old sets out to prove his grit by catching an outlaw horse, that no one seems to be able to capture. Arliss is tired of being told by grown-ups that he is too little to do some of the things he wants to do. Still full of the same fire, and short temper, and accuracy when it comes to throwing rocks, Arliss is determined to prove the grown folks wrong.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Old Yeller and read it many times. I still have my $.60 copy from 1967. This is about Arliss who was cute when he was 5 but is annoying at 12. Throwing rocks at people at age 12 is not acceptable and Papa needed to wear him out. Not as good as Old Yeller.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, that Arliss. He reminds me a mite bit too much of some of my own boys, had they been born into the Old West. I couldn't help but laugh at the closing scene with Judy, because something tells me that's how one of mine will end up getting himself caught one day. 🤣

[ArchaeoLibraryologist · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much of a story, but a nice addition to the Old Yeller and Savage Sam family.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with my 9 year old son who identified with Arliss' frustration at always being told he was too little to do anything. It's a short, entertaining read. I have to admit there were a few times I was a little apprehensive reading about Arliss' bad behavior with my son, but he was able to recognize it for what it was - a story about an unruly boy who gets in trouble, usually gets his the punishment he deserves, and for once, got to prove he wasn't all that little. Arliss is unruly. Arliss is outrageous. Arliss is funny. We laughed out loud and are still sharing secret Arliss jokes. My son couldn't wait to read each day and read a lot of this book to me. That makes it a winner in this house.

We ended up really bonding over this book. We borrowed from the library, and I'm sorry it's so hard to find copies because it's one I'd really like him to have for keeps.

[Julie Biles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is #3 of the Old Yeller series. Little Arliss is Travis's little brother and he is adventurous and mischievous as he finds trouble on the Texas frontier in Indian country.

[Jarod]

Loved the first book want to read 2 and 3!

[WSL Library]

x2

[Traci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read these with Q. Don’t remember what we didn’t like about this one.

[Constance]

Nice story

[Alanna]

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