# Where the Red Fern Grows

**Author:** Wilson Rawls
**Lexile:** 700L
**Grade range:** Grades 4–7
**Age range:** 9–13
**First published:** 1961
**Page count:** 245
**Genre:** Children's Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780553274295`
**ISBN-10:** `0553274295`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/where-the-red-fern-grows
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Billy Colman, a boy in Depression-era Ozarks, saves up for two Redbone Coonhounds and trains them for raccoon hunts. Rawls's novel is a common 5th-6th grade read-aloud and sees periodic renewals of popularity as a reluctant-reader classic.

## Themes

- boy-and-dog bond
- rural self-reliance
- perseverance
- grief
- family
- coming of age

## Content notes

- animal death (central)
- hunting violence
- grief

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 10+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 5th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 4-5 exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · Texas — [source: TX common summer-reading list — rising 5th grade](https://tea.texas.gov/)
- **recommended** · 6th grade · Oklahoma — [source: Oklahoma Academic Standards grade 6 aligned text (Ozarks setting)](https://sde.ok.gov/)

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