The Yearling

This is my book review of the yearling, which I read for honors English and surprisingly liked :)

When I first started reading this I thought that I was going to hate it, I thought that it was going to be a boring book about a boy and his deer. As I got further into the story each day, I discovered it was more than that. It was the story of a boy and his family, a family that had hardships. Jody wants to live life to the fullest extent, he wants to enjoy it. Being the only child in times like those though? Made living life just for fun, pretty hard.

Jody lives on Baxter Island. A small area of land that his father owns on which they live and raise their stock and care for their crops. He has always loved hunting with his father; he felt that it wasn't really about the hunt, so much as the journey. Even though Penny is Jody's comfort and friend, he still felt lonely. Even when he was with his best friend Fodderwing, he felt lonely. He wanted to get rid of that loneliness, and he did. Jody was out hunting with his father just like any other day, when they shot a buck. Moments later did they discover that the buck had a fawn. Jody saw that fawn and knew what he wanted to do, he wanted that fawn as his pet. Jody takes care of this fawn and later names it Flag. Flag is Jody's best friend, his greatest confidant, other than Penny of course. He takes care of Flag, but he soon realizes that this will be harder than he thought. Flag starts causing trouble for the Baxter's, destroying their crops, and one time to many. Some thing has to be done with this fawn, for he is now a yearling, and a restless one at that.

When I finished this story I found that I actually liked it. Although it was not what I would have traditionally read by myself I enjoyed it none the less. One thing that made it a little difficult to read though? The grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. The spelling is the thing that made it the hardest to understand. Because although it might make sense to the author, I had a hard time understanding some of the vocabulary because I am not quite sure how to pronounce it; and since I do not know how to pronounce it I can't figure out what word(s) I am reading.

Some things I really loved about this though? The descriptions of everything. such as this quote. "The marsh was golden. The whooping cranes were washed with gold. The far hammocks were black." I love the descriptions of the objects. They paint a great visual picture that I could not have seen any other way. The same goes with this simple quote. "The sunrise reached long fingers into the clearing." They just they create such an amazing way of describing it so well that you can clearly see it in your head.

This book was a great story. Though I will admit I had a hard time getting through it, I loved it in the end, and I hope that any one who reads the book will love it too.