Thursday, September 29, 2011

Book Review: Big Red

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Book Title: Big Red


Author: Jim Kjelgaard

Date: 1945, reprinted in 1956

Publisher: Holiday House

ISBN: none

Length: 254 pages

Illustrations: black and white drawings by Bob Kuhn

Quote: "The bear, with his customary cunning, had put a safe distance between himself and the dangerous rifle in Danny's hands."

Seventeen-year-old Danny and his father work on one of the farms that make up the Haggin estate. One of Mr. Haggin's interests is dogs. While Danny's father judges dogs only as "varmint dogs" who hunt anything, Danny thinks of "Champion Sylvester's Boy," whom he renames Big Red, as strictly a bird hunter. After roaming the hills with Danny and building up muscle, however, Big Red proves to be up for almost anything. Older readers may remember the Disney movie about their adventures.

This is one animal adventure story that ends before the animal's relatively short lifespan does. Children like my brother (and like the characters in a whole novel about this issue, Gordon Korman's No More Dead Dogs) have loved Big Red for a long time for this reason. They need to know that most humans outlive several pets, but they hate the parts of novels where the dogs die.

The blurb on the jacket of my copy of Big Red says that it's for readers "from sixth grade up." My brother put a lot of wear on this copy in grades four and five, and had generally outgrown "boys' adventure stories" by grade six. Much depends on a child's familiarity with grown-up words like "inevitable," idiomatic phrases like "hounds bayed thunderous encouragement," dialect words like "get clawed or chawed"...and the maturity with which the child can be expected to learn about the correct use of the word for a female dog.

Although Danny's wholesomeness and consistent triumphs make adult readers suspect that Big Red was one of Kjelgaard's boyhood fantasies rather than one of his adventures, Kjelgaard had spent a lot of time with dogs. Some parts of the story are based on information about dogs that will be helpful to young readers. There's a woman character who might bring the B-word to corrupted adult minds, but the word is properly used of "Sheilah MacGuire," the mate the humans choose for Big Red. Danny innocently expects that Big Red will fall in love with Sheilah on sight--she's so beautiful! To Danny's chagrin, Big Red hardly notices Sheilah's charms but goes into a sulk because his human patted that strange dog. He'll come around, but only after Danny has fussed over him enough to show that he's still the Favorite Dog.

Urban animal lovers can still appreciate the subtleties of this dog romance, but they may be less comfortable with the idea of an animal villain...a "native species" animal villain at that. Although the big bear has earned a name, Old Majesty, there's never any question of the basic assumption that he needs killing, and any man, dog, or combination of men and dogs who can kill him will be heroes. The reaction adults have to this part of the plot is a fairly reliable indicator of how much they know about the habits of bears.

The absence of likable female characters in this story bothers some girls more than others. It does not seem to bother boys...and no, a boy's ability to enjoy stories without heroines does not affect either his ability to appreciate stories with heroines, or his ability to bond with girls as friends.

Big Red is recommended to middle school readers, perhaps especially those whose fathers remember having enjoyed it.
 

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