From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Yearling

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings,

Patricia Reilly Giff (Foreword)

Start date: May 1, 2018

Finish date: May 31, 2018

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Apr 03, 2009 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-read, audible-uk, fauna, southern, life-stages, relationships, humor, kids, classics, fiction

First time around, I gave this Pulitzer winning classic first published in 1938 four stars. Now, second time around, I again think it is worth four stars. It’s gripping, and it’s moving. It is equally good for adults and children. It’s worthy of being classified as a classic—it speakers to readers generation after generation. It is a well told story with prose that shines.

It is about a fawn that becomes a yearling and about a child leaving childhood behind.

The story is set in the 1870s in the First time around, I gave this Pulitzer winning classic first published in 1938 four stars. Now, second time around, I again think it is worth four stars. It’s gripping, and it’s moving. It is equally good for adults and children. It’s worthy of being classified as a classic—it speakers to readers generation after generation. It is a well told story with prose that shines.

It is about a fawn that becomes a yearling and about a child leaving childhood behind.

The story is set in the 1870s in the scrubland of Florida near the small town Volusia on the eastern bank of the St. Johns River, about three miles south of Lake George. The area is remote and sparsely inhabited, by people that is, but densely inhabited by a multitude of animals—bears and coons and muskrats, snakes, pumas and wild cats, wild vermin and beasts. The prose is descriptive; it gives you a feel for the land and its denizens. The lush vegetation is vividly described.

The story is about a boy and his fawn and the hardscrabble life of his family. They are farmers, barely surviving. To feed a pet is simply beyond their means. The father is loving. The mother is bitter—six children have died in infancy. Jody, her youngest son, is alive, but she cannot relate to him. The characters are portrayed so you come to understand why they behave as they do.

The nearest neighbors are the Forresters—elderly parents with seven sons addicted to drink, fiddling, dancing, “frolicking”, hunting and tussling with friends and foes alike. One of the sons, Fodder-wing, is disabled but has a great affinity for animals. He and the Baxter boy, Jody, become friends.

An important element of this book is character portrayal. I particularly like that the characters cannot be easily categorized as either good or bad. Each has good qualities and bad and life puts up stumbling blocks that must by some means be overcome.

The tale is about interactions between people and between people and animals. It is about growing up and about some not so nice realities of life. Do not expect a sweet, rose-tinted fairy tale.

Readers are given dialogues that reflect perfectly the persons speaking--another reason to like the prose. There is humor to be found in what is said, and the lyrics of invented songs make you laugh.

Did I mention that the story is exciting? There is a storm, the hunting of a ferocious bear, a fire and more. These are mere subplots to the central story which is guaranteed to rip you apart.

The ending is perfect.

So, yes, I do like this book a lot!

Tom Stechschulte narrates the audiobook very well. He intones the characters so they sound as they should, given who they are and the circumstances which arise. The Forresters speak in a hillbilly fashion, but this is not hard to understand. Four stars for the audiobook narration. ...more

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Nov 07, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books, childrens, pulitzer, american-lit, read-in-2019, pulitzer-tbr

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. She told a story for children that is highly enjoyable for adults. Rawlings told stories about the poor people of her time. They were people whom she understood. They are close to nature, hunters and fishers, living off the land. The dialect is true to the time and place and sometimes hard for this modern day woman from the west to understand. So, I bought the audiobook and listened while I read and it was such a beautiful ...more

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