The Yearling

Jody Baxter lives in the Florida wilderness with his family and the animals.  Magnolias grow wild in the tangle of moss.  Palmetto bushes and pine trees and wildlife at every turn.  Rain falls at the drop of a hat, winters can be cold, and the living conditions are not the most favorable for people who are not well off.  Jody and his parents, Ora and Penny live in a hard time and are poor. Jody is a typical boy- running the woods with his friend, playing, having fun, but also learning how to work and survive.  Jody's parents lost their previous children as babies so he is very special to them.  One day while Jody and his mother Penny are out trying to find some of their pigs that went missing, Penny is bitten by a poisonous snake.  She kills a deer to get its liver.  She uses the liver to draw the poison out but did not realize when she killed the doe that there was a fawn left behind.  Jody has always wanted a pet and convinces his parents to let him adopt the fawn which he names Flag because his tail reminds Jody of a flag.  Flag and Jody become best friends.  Jody can tell Flag all his deepest fears and secrets and they are inseparable. 

This is a classic coming of age story.  Jody starts out running kind of wild and trying to find his place in the world he lives in.  He has to deal with being poor, hunger, fearing where his family will end up, and even death when his friend dies from illness.  Through it all, Flag is there beside him.  As the story continues, Jody must face a harsh reality.  Flag is growing. Flag is a deer.  Flag has a natural attraction to the corn and other crops that Jody's parents grow to survive.  Jody is unable to keep Flag out of the garden and Penny shoots the deer in the leg.  Jody ends up having to finish the job and shoots Flag in the neck, killing him.  This is entirely too much for Jody so he runs away.  He comes face to face with himself and is forced to leave his childhood behind.  He finally returns home to his thankful parents who don't question him.  They just take him back and love him.

For me, the most poignant part of the book is one of the last two paragraphs of the book.
" He found himself listening for something.  It was the sound of the yearling for which he listened, running around the house or stirring on his moss pallet in the corner of the bedroom.  He would never hear him again.  He wondered if his mother had thrown dirt over Flag's carcass, or if the buzzards had cleaned it.  Flag- He did not believe he should ever again love anything, man or woman or his on child, as he had love the yearling.  He would be lonely all his life.  But a man took it for his share and went on."
If I were to reccommend this book for a certain age I would say probably 6th grade and up. It is a long book and while it is SO well written, it is a very descriptive and detailed book.  Smaller children may not have the patience to deal with the details. It is a wonderful story though and older children should enjoy it.
[book:The Yearling|159582]