Awarded the Newbery Honor
When a novel like Huckleberry Finn, or The Yearling, comes along
it defies customary adjectives because of the intensity of the respouse
it evokes in the reader. Such a book, we submit, is Old Yeller; to
read this eloquently simple story of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill
country is an unforgettable and deeply moving experience.
When his father sets out on a cattle drive for the summer,
fourteen-year-old Travis is left to take care of his family and their
farm, and he faces new, unanticipated and often perilous
responsibilities in the wilderness of early fronteir Texas. But Travis
is not alone. He finds help and comfort in the courage and unwavering
love of the stray animal who comes to be his most loyal and very best
friend: the big yellow dog Travis calls "Old Yeller."
An enduring and award-winning American classic, Fred Gipson's Old
Yeller stands as one of the most beloved novels ever produced in this
country, and one that will live in the hearts and minds of readers for
generations to come.