This book should not be classified as a children’s book. The ending made me so mad and upset. Ok, let me write a summary of the book, and then I will write about my reaction.
The book is about a little boy, Ricky, who has a terrible fear of dogs because when he was younger he was attacked by a dog that had rabies, so he had to undergo several painful shots and stitches to heal him. Ricky lives on a farm in Oklahoma with his mom, dad and little brother, Chuckie. One day they find a puppy hidden in their barn, and the mom wants to keep it, but she cannot because of Ricky’s fear. While Ricky is in the barn one day stacking the hay he sees the dog hidden behind some hay, and the dog looks like he is about to die form starvation and he is to weak to move. Although Ricky hates dogs, and fears them more than anything, he feels sympathy for the dog and decides he is going to sneak scraps of food to the dog, just until the dog is strong enough to walk, then he plans on scaring the dog away. After about six weeks of hiding the dog from his parents, his parents find out about it, and are excited that Ricky has overcome his fear. Ricky develops a strong relationship with the pup, and decides to keep him. One day Ricky’s dad tells him about coyote traps that other farmers have put around the land to trap these 4 wild dogs that have been killing other dogs and cows. The traps have a piece of raw meat in the middle of them, and when the dogs go to take the meat a poison sprays them, and instantly kills them. Ricky is very worried that his dog, Kitty, will get into the traps so he devises a plan to make sure Kitty will not go near them. He feeds raw meat to Kitty that has burning hot peppers in it, and as soon as Kitty eats the meat, the burning kicks in, and that was the last time Kitty ever ate meat that was not in his feeding dish. After this problem gets resolved, Ricky’s dad gets a phone call that his sister was in a horrific car crash and lost her son, and her husband was in critical condition. The father wants to go visit his sister to help her, but does not want to leave Ricky and the mom home alone to land the land and animals because winter had just began and 2 of the heifers were about to deliver. The mom convinces the dad to go, and she and Ricky begin to tend to the animals. The first day that the dad is gone one of the heifers has her baby with no complications. The next day when Ricky and the mom are riding out to the pasture the truck gets stuck in the mucky snow, and they cannot get it out. The mom and Chuckie go back to the house, and Ricky walks, with Kitty, out to the pasture to give the cows the hay. Ricky counts all of the cows, to make sure they are all accounted for, and he realizes the pregnant heifer is missing. Kitty and Ricky search everywhere and cannot find it. When it starts to get dark Ricky searches the last place he can think of, the pond, and finds her. He also encounters the 4 wild dogs. The dogs are after the cow and her newborn calf, but when they see Kitty the begin to attack him. Ricky’s fear of dogs rushes back into him, and he runs for the house. As he is running he hears Kitty screeching as if she is about to die, so he grabs a club and runs back to the pond. When he gets their Kitty is not in good shape, and one of the dogs runs up to Ricky and bites hhis leg. Ricky takes the club and smashes the dog on the back, breaking it’s back and killing he. He then goes to one of the dogs attacking kitty and fights it away. Finally after all of the wild dogs are gone Ricky hears momma calling for him. Mom takes Ricky and Kitty up to the house and calls for the vet and doctor. Ricky and Kitty are both saved, and become the new town heroes. When the summer comes Ricky and Kitty explore all of the land together. Oil rigs were being dug near Ricky’s house, so he became friends with a lot of the workers. One day while he and Kitty were walking to the oil rig, Kitty smelled food and ran as fast as she could up to Arthur, the oil rig manager. Before Arthur had time to yell at Kitty it was too late, a truck load of pipes was being unloaded and Kitty ran right under them, and he dies instantly.
The ending of this book made me so angry. I was just beginning to get so happy that Kitty survived the dog attack and that Ricky lo9ved Kitty enough to defend him, and then Kitty goes and dies in a freak accident, breaking Ricky’s heart. Kitty and Ricky overcame so many obstacles together; first Ricky overcame his fear, then Ricky trained Kitty to not go near the coyote traps, then they battle the wild dogs together. As a reader I was very let down by such a tragic ending. I would not let my children read this book because it is to sad, and I do not think kids at such a young age should be subjected to suck agony.
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4 comments:
I understand your reaction to the book. However tragic this may be, life is full of terrible things that cause agony.
Just to let you know my son has read and re- read this book over and over - it is one of his favorite books. His perception of the book is the understanding that with lifes ups there are downs. He says that it's the memory of the adventures they had that is what life is about, the good and the bad.
I hope you will pass on this book to a child of an appropriate age that has an understanding of life and death and will be able to appreciate the story line behind this wonderful dog named Kitty. :)
My 10 year old son just read the book as required summer reading for his school. He and his classmates have been talking about how this book was too descriptive and sad for their age....almost nightmare material. It is unfortunate that bad things happen in life and animals and children around the world are beaten and abused, but the "learning these lessons" seems too young in today's society. I'm not a fan of this teaching schedule but apparently the Librarian associations and school curriculum gurus have really been pushing these experiences earlier and earlier on children for over a decade. My son and his classmates go to a Catholic school and have been talking about death by crucifixion and watching the reenactment of the whipping of Jesus since preschool. You would think they would be "thick skinned" by age 10. It helps prepare them to learn about Hitler, the Holocaust and watch "Schindler's List" as 13 year olds. Children are becoming desensitized to violence by seeing commercials for TV programs and the nightly news. In my opinion, pushing violent topics and reading on children will probably cause more violence at younger ages in the US and need for counseling...but no one will ever think to link it to the Librarians and school curriculum.
Books of this nature are not new. Remember Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows? I believe the author's intent is to allow young readers the opportunity to explore the themes of love, loyalty, and loss in the context of pet and owner. These books provide a vehicle to discuss with children how these topics translate to other personal relationships. It is amazing to discover how many young people have already lost a loved one. I do agree that our children are bombarded with violence in our multi-media obsessed culture, but I would not put these books in the same category.
I remember when I was in 5th grade, I read this book for an independent reading project unaware of how graphic and sad it was. I was a huge dog-lover at the time, and Kitty, on the cover of the book, reminded me of my own dog Muffin. Anyways, I have a very vivid memory of reading the wild dog fight scene and falling into a crying hyperventilating state that worried my teacher so badly she sent me home. Overnight she read the book herself and when I returned the next day she sat down with me and told me she too thought the book was much to graphic for my age. She asked me to switch books, but me being the curious stupid little shit I was decided that no, I was going to finish the book. And so I kept reading it. When I got to the end I remember bawling my eyes out. I was crying and shaking and saying I was never going to read another book by myself again. I had nightmares for months about that book, afraid I might loose my dog in a similar way. I refused to bring my dog for walks alone, I would refuse to walk past construction sites, and steered clear of people walking large dogs outside. The book fucked me up. I still clearly remember my imagining of little Kitty fighting the wild dogs, covered in blood, yelping in pain, guts basically hanging out. I still clearly remember my heartbreak when Kitty was crushed to death... I still choose not to read a book myself if there's an animal on the cover. And any time someone says 'Kitty' I get this mental image on a crushed bloody little dog corpse...My teacher had any copies of the book removed from our classroom library and said the book should be marked 12+ however personally I wouldn't recommend that book to anyone under the age of 14 or anyone faint of heart... it was a truly fucked up and scarring thing for me to read as a 9 year old kid. And I'll never forget how bad it messed me up.
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