The Yearling

Rating:
Summary: unexpected trouble
Review: I am 15yo. It's a really good book, and you should read it. It's funny that the guys go around naked in the first quarter of the book. The mom wears her clothes all the time, but she is mean, and i wish she had been killed off at the end. I don't like what she did to Flag because he was eating all the crops. What she does will really make you mad. But I will read this book again [even though i don't like the mom].

Rating:
Summary: The Yearling
Review: I am 15yo. It's a really good book, and you should read it. It's funny that the guys go around naked in the first quarter of the book. The mom wears her clothes all the time, but she is mean, and i wish she had been killed off at the end. I don't like what she did to Flag because he was eating all the crops. What she does will really make you mad. But I will read this book again [even though i don't like the mom].

Rating:
Summary: A Cracker Classic
Review: I'm a 7th generation Floridian though not a Cracker. Cracker's in the Olden Times lived on the edge pretty much like the Baxter's did in this 1870s tale. Life in the Florida "scrub" was always difficult and always a challenge. Sugar-sand, pines,and palmettos. Crackers existed by hunting, foraging, fishing, theft, and farming enough corn to take care of their most basic needs. Killing a deer who eats your corn was the reality, killing a bear who slaughters your calf was the reality. Killing a neighbor who poached your hog was the reality. Because these kinds of insults to your welfare could not be tolerated, and Crackers had no luxuries or slack to draw upon when emergencies came along. Root hog! or die! This is what the book is about: Making the transformation from a child-like innocence of life, to a mature acceptance of the harsh realities of living. Many adults never make the change. Rawlings elevates and enobles the Baxters somewhat; in reality they would have been coarse and crude and unsympathetic characters, hardened by a life of hard-times. But the book is about becoming an adult and setting aside childish things and ways. Excellent writing and absorbing story.

Rating:
Summary: A Simple, Predictable Tale
Review: The Yearling isn't so much flawed as it is, well- just there. The tale of the young boy in Florida is a cute, well-told tale that comes off as a bit simple. While the title obviously suggests a book about a boy and his deer, the more interesting parts of the book revolve around the boys neighbors and the politics of sparce living. But Rawlings retreats to the boy and his wild pet as the vignette for the book's lessons, and you can guess what happens there.

While a good (not a great) book, I have to wonder if a tale this bland would ever win the Pulitzer Prize now.

Rating:
Summary: A Simple, Predictable Tale
Review: The Yearling isn't so much flawed as it is, well- just there. The tale of the young boy in Florida is a cute, well-told tale that comes off as a bit simple. While the title obviously suggests a book about a boy and his deer, the more interesting parts of the book revolve around the boys neighbors and the politics of sparce living. But Rawlings retreats to the boy and his wild pet as the vignette for the book's lessons, and you can guess what happens there.

While a good (not a great) book, I have to wonder if a tale this bland would ever win the Pulitzer Prize now.

Rating:
Summary: unexpected trouble
Review: Young Jody Baxter is lonely in his isolated home in the Southern Florida scrub. When he discovers an abandoned fawn he finds the companionship he was longing for, but with it come some unexpected problems.

The yearling has many suspenseful hunts and beautiful descriptions of the scrub. However, Majorie Kinnan Rawlings bogged the story down with Jody's emotions which drew out the story.

No matter what your age, if you enjoy rambling in the woods and taking in nature's beauty, this is the book you have been looking for.