Friday Flavor (2) Lara Zielin Talks About Her All Time Favorite Book

Friday Flavour is back ^^ this week is a little special because our guest will not talk about a recently read that she adores, but a book that has always been on her mind. Have a book that you can read over and over and over without getting tired of it? Lara has one too! Here's her story:

Recently I took a writing sabbatical where I went to my childhood home in Wisconsin and shut out the world while I wrote and edited for two weeks. While I was there, my mom asked if I would go through some of my old stuff and either keep it or toss it. While pilfering through old photos, notes, letters and books, I came across my childhood copy of WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS. There’s not much of a spine left on it, and the pages are pretty yellow, but I love it.

WTRFG is the story of a boy, Billy, and his struggle to acquire and train two hunting dogs: Dan and Ann. When they become champion hunters, it changes the life of Billy and his impoverished farming family. The plot sounds ridiculously simple but the story is truly deep and meaningful. I read and re-read WTRFG countless times growing up. The book's lessons of faith, hard work, and loyalty still stick with me today.

Wilson Rawls, author of WTRFG has an amazing personal story as well. Like his main character Billy, he grew up poor without much of an education. Wilson didn't consider himself a writer, even though he loved the craft. He let his spelling and grammar errors keep him from showing his work to anyone for a long time. It wasn’t until his wife, who had editing experience, helped him with his work and encouraged him to show it to others that he became serious about publication. He credits her with the success of WTRFG.

My old dog-eared book (no pun intended) is great, but I think the cover art is especially good on this version, because the dogs are actually red-bone hounds. In Borders, a friend and I stumbled across the updated cover and noted one of the dogs looks like a a blue-tic, the other a blood hound. You can see the new cover here: http://bit.ly/1D8rJX.

If you haven't picked up WTRFG, I can't recommend it enough. By read it, let me know how you like it! today's standards it starts out a bit slowly, but the story itself won't disappoint. And if you do

Apparently Lara didn't want to steal the spotlight, but you can still see her thumb in the picture :)

Any of the readers has read WTRFG? Share your thoughts on it with us and Lara. I'm going to read this one soon when I have a chance. I love anything that involves dogs.




CONTEST TIME:

As promised, FF is not just about sharing your craziness about a book but also spreading the joy of reading with giveaways. Lara didn't have any copy of WTRFG to give away, but, fortunately she does have a copy of her own book Donut Days for one lucky commenter. Comment on with your contact information and you could be the owner of DD this time next week!

For extra entries:

+1 if you tell me Lara you favorite YA book and WHY (remember the WHY part cos Lara "demanded" it)
+2 if you follow my blog
+2 if you comment on my review of Donut Days
+3 if you follow Lara on Twitter @Larazielin
+5 if you spread the word of the giveaway.

This contest is open to everyone and will end on 29th Oct.



Happy reading FF and good luck~!