#11 The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Buck the dog is stolen from his home and sold into service in Alaska at the height of the gold rush. There he lives and works with other dogs under the changing leadership of several mushers, all the while becoming more and more wild in spirit.
It's been forever and a day since I last read this one and found it pleasant to revisit the story. Buck is a likable dog and the story is rich with imagery that makes it simple to envision the wilderness Buck finds himself in. My daughters really enjoyed it too. And the best part is that it seems to have warmed my husband up to the idea of possibly one day getting a dog (I've been a dog owner before and would love to get one, he's never had one and has always been resistant to the idea). It won't be anytime soon, but here's to hoping!
#12 Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
10 year old Billy Coleman has a case of puppy love - the kind with wiggly bodies and wagging tails. But not just any kind of dogs - he wants two hunting dogs. Since his family is poor, he devises a way to earn money to buy his hounds and together the hunt all over their little section of the Ozark Mountains.
One of my favorite books, I just read this one a year or two ago and wasn't actually planning to reread it just yet. But my daughters actually begged me to read it once Call of the Wild was done and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to share it with them. As always, I blubbered and cried my way through the ending, only this time I had an audience to witness it. But that was okay, since they were crying just as much. (Hubby wasn't but he was less impressed with the book than the rest of us.) I just took the 1974 movie out from the library today and hopefully we'll watch it tomorrow or the next day. (The 1974 version is the only good one, I've seen the remakes and they just don't capture the book's spirit in the same way.)
