THE YEARLING, BY MAJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS
Why The Yearling Deserves a Second Chance ~ Many of us read The Yearling in high school. And we probably thought it was boring. It’s not. We just weren’t ready for it. I recently re-read it, and I can honestly say it’s one of the best books I have read in years. It’s a masterfully evocative homage to Old Florida, and a beautiful coming-of-age story to boot.
The Yearling tells the story of Jody Baxter, a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn. It shows the growing love between the boy and his pet, while also describing Jody’s daily life vividly. The Baxter family are subsistence farmers in central Florida. The book recounts their struggles to survive and make a decent living in an unforgiving land, and paints a beautiful picture of the Florida landscape, before it got developed and urbanized.
The characters – especially Jody and his father Penny and mother Ora – are unforgettable. The book has humor but also is heartbreakingly sad in places. This is a book that stays with the reader long after it’s finished. Worth the read!
