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HOUND-DOG MAN

Name: HOUND-DOG MAN
Author: Fred Gipson
ISBN: 0803270054

by Fred Gipson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 1948

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This is a honey of a book, and has so much that most books this year lack that people will welcome it jubilantly, yes even those to whom the lure of the wilderness, the feel for folk ways, is not ordinarily a factor in reading pleasure. It's a story that might easily have slopped over into sentimentality, but that manages to stay safely on the side of realism, a first rate boy story, with the hound-pup angle a somewhat tenuous thread that ties together a rather intricate pattern of adventure and folk tale. Two, things Cotton- aged twelve- wanted above all else,- a hound-pup and a chance to prowl the woods like "Blackie". That Blackie had no visible means of support, other than the gift for telling tall tales and for arriving at the psychological moment for a good meal, bothered Cotton not at all, and his heaven spilled over when Blackie invited him to go along on a coon-hunting trip. His Ma was a hurdle to take, but Pa managed it, and off Cotton goes, with his pal Spud, and Blackie and the mare. And they have their fill- and more- of adventure- and beauty — yes and romance too. For Blackie is lured by a girl's eyes, and they find themselves by chance at Fiddling Tom's house, where Blackie and Dony spark a bit. For Cotton the black pup that will have none of anyone is the high spot of the stopover, when the pup timorously chooses Cotton as his man — trails him ten miles when they leave- and, before the story ends, wins Cotton's mother to agreement. The book is rooted deep in folk ways. The Shivaree at the Wilsons', celebrating Dave's accident, is a superb bit of dramatization, right out of Lomax and Richard Chase, and perhaps most closely, Shaw, authority on cowboy dances. Comparison to The Yearling — to The Voice of Bugle Ann — to other boy and dog stories- is inevitable. Actually, Hound-Dog-Man is in a class by itself.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1948

ISBN: 0803270054

Page Count: 260

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1948

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
CURLY AND THE WILD BOAR
by Fred Gipson & illustrated by Ronald Himler

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE ARLISS
by Fred Gipson & illustrated by Ronald Himler

- BOOK REVIEW
SAVAGE SAM
by Fred Gipson

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CAROLINA CROW GIRL

by Valerie Hobbs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 1999

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Carolina’s life is not a perfect one, but she’s content. She, mother Melanie, and baby sister Trinity go from place to place in the old school bus that Melanie transformed into a home of sorts, with beds and a table and chairs—and no electricity or water, of course. They stop wherever there are opportunities for Melanie to find enough work to pay for food and other necessities; this time, they have taken up residence in a field above the ocean, where Carolina rescues an infant crow and it becomes her fast and only friend. She meets wheelchair-bound Stefan, whose father owns the field on which Carolina’s family is squatting. She and Stefan hit it off, and he introduces her to his mother, who takes an understandable interest in her; her own daughter, Heather, died. When Melanie decides to move to Oregon, Carolina stays behind with Crow, living with Stefan’s family. It’s inevitable that Carolina will change her mind—Melanie is a loving mother and Stefan’s mother has several issues to work out—but Hobbs (Get It While It’s Hot. Or Not., 1996, etc.) handles the path of Carolina’s reasoning well. It’s an unusual story, with interesting characters and a strong plot, and it’s fair to say that Crow steals the show, teaching Carolina how to accept change and to fly in spite of it. (Fiction. 9-12)