by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1939
BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! The Baxter’s, Penny (Dad), Ma, Jody-son, live in a clearing on high ground in Florida. They farm and raise or hunt all their food. Tote water from the sink hole. Nearest neighbors are the Forrester’s, typical moonshiners. They are bothered by a bear – Ol’ Slewfoot – who kills their stock in the middle of the night. Jody is lonely, adopts a fawn, it grows up, eats their crops, and must be shot. This about kills Jody, he runs away, almost starves to death, comes home a man.
Incredible descriptions of hunts (Jody and his Dad finally get Ol’ Slewfoot one Christmas day), fishing, nature (flowers, birds, streams, forests), people (his ma; his Dad, Penny; The Forrester’s, esp. Lem, Fodderwing, Buck; Doc; Grandma Huho; Oliver; etc.)
We grow up with Jody. What a beautiful, wonderful book!!!
Last few sentences:
“Flag – He did not believe he should ever again love anything, man or woman or his own child, as he had loved the yearling. He would be lonely all his life. But a man took it for his share and went on.
“In the beginning of his sleep, he cried out, “Flag!”
“It was not his own voice that called. It was a boy’s voice. Somewhere beyond the sinkhole, past the magnolias, under the live oaks, a boy and a yearling ran side by side, and were gone forever.”