The Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings

I haven’t personally read it, but it gets great reviews on Amazon and is recommended for ages 9-12.

http://www.amazon.com/Yearling-Aladdin-Classics-Marjorie-Rawlings/dp/0689846231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313702290&sr=8-1

I remember owning a copy when I was maybe 11 or so and looking at the cover.  My mother said it was a great book, but I never got past the first paragraph.  I was into Nancy Drew then, the Yearling didn’t interest me then. I’ve been wondering if I’ve been missing something and if I should try this one with my 10 year old.

That’s something I really struggled with at school — reading books that held no interest for me.  I kind of feel mean expecting my son to read books that do not really appeal to him.  I remember a teacher once telling us that children are much more apt to put a book down if it doesn’t catch their interest in the first few pages.  Adult are more apt to struggle through and hope it gets better.  While perserverence is important, I always felt that a lot of the books we were made to read in school were a waste of time.  I could have been reading something else that held much more interest for me.  (I’ve always been an avid reader and have read a lot of the classics on my own.)  To be honest, most of the books we had to read for class were so boring to me that I didn’t even finish reading most of them.  The only ones I can say I actually finished were Watership Down in grade 8, The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart in grade 9 (which started my love of all things Arthurian — I read all the books in that series afterward  and have at least three full shelves of Arthurian themed novels, and non-fiction), and the 4 Shakespeare plays we did in grades 9-12.  That’s it, that’s all.  In about 8 years of doing novel studies — at least 4 books a year — I finshed 6.  (Don’t ask me how my English marks were generally very good — it was always my best subject.) 

Sorry — I really didn’t mean to get off topic like that. 

Ya — we really didn’t have to read many classics either.  I just thought of two others I might have finished — To Kill a Mocking Bird (though I might have just seen the whole movie) and The Witch of Blackbird Pond — maybe. 

Yep– your mom and my mom and probably neither remembers enough about it to help answer your question.

We enjoyed this book.  I’ll have to ask my thirteen year old what he thought.  I don’t remember anything objectionable, although the people are very real.  I will look back through it when I get a minute and try to refresh my memory.