Youth Book Club Kit Questions s2

Youth Book Club Kit Questions

Where the Red Fern Grows By Wilson Rawls

1. Describe Billy’s deep longing for two hunting dogs. Why does the idea mean so much to him? Have you ever had this tremendous longing for a pet?

2. Billy works for two years to save enough money for his hunting dogs. How and why does that change the experience of getting them? If you have a pet, share your memories of choosing the pet and coming home with it.

3. Billy’s Dad defines the feelings between humans and dogs in this way. “.. I call it love – the deepest kind of love.” Is the bond between a person and a dog love or loyalty? Why?

4. How does the Depression affect how Billy’s family lives? What would a depression change about today’s society?

5. Billy and his sisters – as well as his mother and father – have very specific gender-based responsibilities in their rural Depression-era home. Billy says “ …after all, she was a girl and girls don’t think like boys do.” do you agree or disagree with Billy? Why?

6. At times Billy’s grandfather seems to understand his grandson better than Billy’s own parents do. Do you know an adult who has a special relationship with you? What is it like?

7. Hard work and determination are two major topics in this book. Billy’s grandfather scolds Billy at one point saying “don‘t ever start anything you can’t finish.” Do you think that’s good advice? Some people might argue that abandoning a doomed plan can be a good idea too…what is right or wrong with both of these ideas?

8. Raccoon hunting was a way for poor country people to make money during the Depression. Did the subject of hunting raccoons bother you as you read about it? Did the author handle the subject in a way that helped you accept it? If so, how?

9. Why doesn’t Billy want his dogs to kill the “ghost coon?”

10. How did you react to the deaths of Old Dan and Little Ann?

11. Why does Billy feel so strongly that he must stay with his dying dogs and bury them alone? 12. Billy’s father sees the deaths of Old Dan and Little Ann as a sign from God that Billy is to join his family in town and not stay behind to continue hunting. Do you think everything that happens is part of a master plan?