The Yearling

I didn't think I liked this book for awhile, than it grew on me, than I wasn't so sure again, and I ended up with: it's really well written, I enjoyed some aspects of the book, I'm glad I read it, and it's not a favorite. The book includes a lot of the descriptive details that I love to set the scene and time period; in a way, it kind of reminded me of Little House on the Prairie in how I was interested in all the aspects of subsistence farming and hunting. (I'm glad that I don't have to grow all my own food to survive, but I'm actually fascinated by all those things.) I was also surprised that the adopted fawn didn't show up until about a third of the way into the book, as I thought the book was about the yearling. At some point later in the book, it clicked to me – Jody is The Yearling!

From November of 2011:

I just spent about six hours with The Yearling and I could happily turn to page one and spend another six hours.

Jody is a young boy, a yearling himself, if you will, who lives with his mother and father in the wilds of Florida in the early 1900's. His mother and father are a little out-of-place in this world, both older people who finally had Jody after many miscarriages and the loss of many babies who died in infancy. Jody's mother has become hardened by the losses but Jody's father is crazy about his son and tries to teach the boy everything he needs to know. Jody lives a very different life than most children today. He doesn't go to school and suffers with his parents from the whims of living in poverty in desperate times. Jody is thrilled to come upon a motherless yearling deer and to be given reluctant permission from his parents to raise the deer.

Like the story of Old Yeller, the ending of this book is widely known, so I don't think I'll be giving away much if I say that the painful but beautiful ending of the story is not even the wisest part of this book.

This book was so good but traumatizing to my heart and soul. First of all most of this book is less about a boy and his best friend that's a deer but more about his dad Penny shooting almost every animal in this story except Flag. Penny is a great dad and I feel sorry for him in instances but Jody's mother is absolute trash, I understand she's been through some serious life trials but geez what a horrible swine!! Also I'm a grown man and the ending made me tear up like a little sissy but idc what you think, I'm still manly