Where the Red Fern Grows remembered as a traumatic childhood read

Amanda Valentine21

I had to teach Where the Red Fern Grows and I hated it. So I approached it that way - told the kids I hated it but we had to do this. The argumentative kids pushed back by telling me what was good about it. I suspect that maybe we should be teaching things we hate.

Ankarah18

What IS it with all the "young reader" books where dogs have to die?!?! I mean I'm sure there're only a handful but as a kid it seemed like there was a freakish fixation some authors had on killing off pets.

Tom16

Junior high teachers needing books that are short enough to fit in a couple week unit, considered classic enough that there's lesson plans already available, and cheap enough to get classroom copies for everyone narrows the selection to some real bummers. My nemesis was A Separate Peace

Rivikah16

Oh. The Red Pony. I had apparently blocked that from my memory entirely.

Fiddler Meg15

The only reason I was able to read The Twisted Ones was because everyone was reassuring everyone else that nothing bad happens to the dog.

Sharrow 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇮🇪🦄💙📚🎃14

Of mice and men, esp when the pupils are autistic.

The Scarlet Letter. Its main value was in making everything else seem much more interesting. Even can labels.

Steinbeck’s The Red Pony for sure. “Oh, you’re such advanced reader, and it’s about horses.” I was nine. Still mad about it.

🍣 Robin Bobcat 🍣11

I remember clawing my way through White Fang. Awful book. Hated it. I was a voracious reader, and could normally finish a book like that in an afternoon, but this was like chewing on a tire. Tire jerky, even. I'm pleased to say that I have completely forgotten all of it. Every damn word. Poof.

Megan Macmanus10

Oh, A Farewell to Arms almost ruined my relationship with my dad, who at that time i thought could do no wrong! I came home ranting about the misogynistic horror dubbed a Romance, and he was like, That's the most romantic book ever. It's my favorite. Something died that day. 😂

Jeremy Bearimy10

Johnny Got His Gun because I was not prepared at that age to deal with the idea of being locked in a non-functioning body and my little neurodivergent brain could do nothing but worry about it for weeks.

Jen ✨8

Sobbing in a classroom full of other 11-12 year olds while first reading and then being forced to watch the movie of Where the Red Fern Grows was traumatic and I’m still not over it.

k8s.bsky.social7

I sometimes feel like an oddball because the dog-death books didn’t traumatize me as much as others. However, I grew up on the farm and was used to animal deaths in real life before reading about them, and came from a family of funeral directors, so I was probably somewhat inured to the topic.

Two of my least favorite pieces of "required reading". The former did spawn: "Why did the chicken cross the road, according to Ernest Hemingway?" Answer: "to die. In the rain. Alone." Ug...that book.

Third Thoughts6

We had an American Author project for AP English, I was out when they did assignment selection, and I randomed Hemingway so... I feel this in my bones. Love his short stories, and Old Man is decent, but his novels are such a chore.

Cat Lady🌈📚6

I had to read The Yearling because it was set near where I grew up and it’s the same concept but switch out the dog for the baby deer. I hated it. Almost entirely descriptions of a boring landscape I could just walk into my backyard and look at anyway AND he has to kill the deer. Ugh.

Mags Malarkey6

Gosh, yeah. Like 1 "you're old enough to contemplate death, kids!" midgrade book is enough! (...I admit I have fond memories of our dead dog book because we were assigned scenes to act out and I decided to ham up the death scene to take the sting out of it... It went over pretty well!)

FormerGregSamsa5

I kind of admire Where the Red Fern Grows because it's like the author took a look at Old Yeller and said, okay, but what if TWO dogs died.

Unconnie Valley5

A Day No Pigs Would Die is somewhere on the list

Moopsy!, MLIS5

Teen girl oriented lit just did not exist for us. I'm so glad it is written now.

Pär5

Hemingway always feels like there is something more there than self doubting (to the point of depression) manliness, but it is just out of reach. Yes, I'm being unfair. But also...

dkhunter4

Less of that and more Shiloh tbh

Beth Pink4

I know I read WTRFG in elementary school or early Jr high... but I'm pretty sure it gave my 'overly empathetic and emotional ass' such PTSD that I forget everything about it within seconds after the test was over. literally a black hole in my memory. blocked it out.

form...4

A Separate Peace and Johnny Tremain stand out in my memory... and Flowers For Algernon. bleah

miss andry4

For me, On the Road.

Prof. EAGZ3

The Scarlet Letter & Things Fall Apart. Ugh. (NB: I somehow loved A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick.)

Sarkat3

Heart of Darkness. How can a book that short manage to feel SO LONG? Somebody please explain paragraph breaks to Joseph Conrad!

Mercury3

It wasn’t required reading, but On the Beach was in the Scholastic Book Club offerings when I was 11 and I thought it looked really interesting. My greatest fear at the time was nuclear war… 😬 Still have no idea why that was in the offerings for ELEMENTARY SCHOOL kids.

Nathan Wilson3

Those dog die books didn't really bother me, but that's because I never had a dog... And now I'm considering it, it's probably one of the factors that stopped me from wanting a dog. Cats don't have stories where they gotta die for me so I could grow up, and maybe that's why I prefer them.

Kittybard (aka K.T. Bard)3

I couldn't fucking do Heart of Darkness That's the only book I DNFed in any English class, and I was normally the sort of kid who read the book through when it was first assigned, then reread it at least once while the class was working through it I Spark Notes'ed that one 100% guilt-free

DragonBear3

I was inconsolable as a 4th-grader watching Where the Red Fern Grows. I ran out of the classroom bawling my eyes out and some of my classmates came out to try and calm me down.

kevinrsours.bsky.social3

A Farewell To Arms. I'd forgotten the title (don't think I read The Sun Also Rises -- put that on the list of titles that deserve a better book). It wasn't even the story. I just found the prose to be completely unreadable.

Jack Lint3

I remember going on a field trip to see some movie and they ran the trailer for Where the Red Fern Grows and the source of the title was just so morbid that two of us started laughing. Got some mean looks from the teacher who shushed us

Susan 🇨🇦3

I just remember REALLY not liking The Edible Woman.

Duchess Urvogel3

I changed schools a lot in junior high and ended up having to read Where the Red Fern Grows in class three years in a row. I was ready to shoot those damn dogs myself

Kirsten (they/she)2

I had to do A Farewell To Arms for Higher English (Scottish exams) and I hated it so much. We also got Philip Larkin for the poetry component and The Tempest for the play, and, well, I did not have an enjoyable year. It absolutely put me off taking English the next year!

Marc Reeve2

We didn’t read “Where The Red Fern Grows” in my part of California, instead we got “The Red Pony”. Same concept though. (And I read “Old Yeller” on my own, which is why I’ve never seen the movie.)

Andy of Maps2

I got a bunch of this, The Giver and Wringer back to back, which was completely senseless

A Buick Level of Build Quality10

I Read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when I was way too young and did not get all the dark humor. For example, I cried and cried and cried when the whale fell to his death and his last thought was, "I wonder if it will be friends with me".

PlayfulPiano8

watership down. doubles in the film.

Jamie Lynn 8647-53096

I still have flashbacks about that damn book. I never know where my keys are, but I remember exact fucking phrases from Where The Red Fern Grows.

Sharon4

A Day No Pigs Would Die says hello.

themikerobbins.bsky.social3

Catcher in the rye is a terrible fucking book. Holden sucks

Ben Dowsett3

Honors English teacher made us read As I Lay Dying in 10th fucking grade and I swear that’s the main reason I never took another honors class

Katie (she/they)2

Oh god that one DESTROYED me.

Infinite Perspective2

I read a Junior Great Book where the creepy guy stalking a young girl said the phrase "you don't know what this means yet, but we're lovers" at an age where I also didn't know what that meant but had a pretty good idea by the end. 😕