The Black Fawn

Jim Kjelgaard spent his boyhood in country much like that described in this book. Those mountain farms, he remembers, produced more rocks to the acre than anything else. But they provided my brothers and me with plenty of ammunition for fighting the neighboring boys across the creek. One of our jobs was to shoo the cows out of the corn patch, which was more exciting than it sounds. There were always two or three yearling bulls in the dairy herd, and when we wanted to get home quickly, we’d each grab one by the tail. The bulls would light out for the barn, their feet hitting the ground about every two yards, and ours in proportion. But the really entrancing thing was the forest that surrounded us: mountains filled with game, and trout streams loaded with fish. Jim’s first book was Forest Patrol, based on the wilderness experiences of himself and his brother, a forest ranger. Big Red, Irish Red, and Outlaw Red are dog stories about Irish setters.