Wednesday, July 07, 2010

find a happy place FIND A HAPPY PLACE

My teacher in fifth grade was named Mrs. Wolfe. It was Mrs. Castrejon the year before who nurtured my love of writing, but it was Mrs. Wolfe who nurtured my love of storytelling. I loved Mrs. Wolfe, idolized her, really, and to this day she remains one of my favorite teachers. I think of her every now and then, usually when I read a book that makes me cry, and I realize that sounds INSANE but hold your horses, I'll explain.

Every day, after lunch and recess, Mrs. Wolfe would pull out an old stool and place it smack dab in the front of our desks. She'd then pull out a book and read to us. I don't remember how long she used to read, sometimes it seemed longer than others, but I always wanted it to last longer, especially if we were in the middle of a good book. At the time, I couldn't understand how some people could just STOP reading in the middle of a book. I couldn't think of much else when I was reading a good book and so would race to finish it so my brain could rest. Not much has changed since then.

I always knew we were in for it if Mrs. Wolfe put a box of tissues near her. She'd cry through the sad parts, even though she'd read most of these books to all of her many classes in years past. And I'd sit in my chair, struggling not to cry with her, because what if no one else was crying OMG SRSLY. This is why I still read books I think might make me cry in the privacy of my own home, which is why when I read the end of The Dealthy Hallows, I found myself alone in bed, working my way through a box of tissues and putting the book down every few minutes because I COULDN'T SEE THE WORDS THROUGH MY TEARS. But I digress.

I don't remember the names of all the books she read over the course of the year, but I do remember the saddest moment in all of those books. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the book, and for once, Google was of absolutely no help. But I have faith that one of you might have read the same book as a kid and, who knows, maybe it stuck in your mind as well.

WARNING: this is like the saddest thing ever. What I'm saying is, Heather Anne, you might not want to read this.

OK. So. There's this boy, I think he's 12, and he wants to join a big dog sledding race in Alaska. I think he needs to win money or something to keep the family home or farm or igloo or whatever. So he joins this sledding race with his trusty pet dog who is the best and smartest and bravest dog ever and all the other people in the race are these grown ass men with their grown ass sledding dogs and they all make fun of the little boy because they are all big meanie poopheads.

The race is really hard and the boy and his dog have many adventures and problems but they make it to the end of the race. It's them against this other guy who wins like ALL the races and the boy and his dog are in the lead! They're going to win! AND THEN THE DOG FUCKING DIES RIGHT BEFORE THE FINISH LINE.

It is the MEANEST! STORY! EVER! you guys. What the shit is that? So of course, in class, we're all crying because THE DOG DIED and stories where the dog dies are the saddest stories of all. But it gets worse. The man who was about to come in second to the boy and the dog before THE DOG DIED, the man who wins all the races all the time, stops his sled, picks up the dead dog and carries him over the finish line and then I DROWN IN MY OWN TEARS.

I hope I didn't just traumatize you. I think I traumatized myself all over again. Anyway, does anyone know what that book was? Because I want to write a mean letter to the author.

13 comments:

  1. I guess maybe it would've been too obvious if the kid had won the race in the face of overwhelming odds, but holy shit. What kind of assface writes a book about a kid and his dog nearly overcoming said odds just to have the dog die within sight of their goal? At least in Old Yeller the kid was doing the dog a favor when he shot him (not that it made it any easier to watch/read). There needs to be some pretty solid justification to dog death, is what I'm saying.

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  2. Yeah, it's pretty messed up. I hope I'm remembering it wrong but I don't think I am.

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  3. Oh no. I hate dead dog stories the most, maybe more than dead people stories. :( This one is especially bad because it seems sort of like the boy ran the dog to death, huh? I mean, I'm sure that the story would never imply such a thing because the dog is Strong and Loyal and Brave, but yeah.

    Mrs. Wolfe sounds awesome.

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  4. I found the book! It was called Stone Fox and I had some of the details wrong, but yeah, the dog dies at the finish. Only really the little boy carries him over the finish line which makes it EVEN SADDER.

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  5. I was just going to suggest Stone Fox. We read that in fifth grade and it made me SO MAD.

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  6. I knew you would know it. :-)

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  7. I think, but am not 100% sure that the book is called Stone Fox and it was written by John Reynolds Gardiner. Oh look: you have already figured that out. Well, anyways: Yes, this is a book that made us all cry, and really was kind of terribly mean.

    I had a teacher like that in the 6th grade, and I never wanted her to stop reading. I hated that we had to go back and do math and stupid things like that when I just wanted to know if anybody was ever going to find out about The Secret Garden, or how the Indian in the Cupboard actually ended.

    Also? I read HP the same way, with a box of tissues constantly in use, and, at one point, I had to close my bedroom door, because I was sobbing.

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  8. It was totally Stone Fox. I found it before I looked at the comments. Go me!

    I've never read that book, but I think I would tear it in half if I ever did.

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  9. That book is giving me a sad.

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  10. Ooh, also, I forgot to mention about my teacher who liked to read to us. One time she read us Narnia, and that was awesome, but then another time she read us Where the Red Fern Grows, and P.S. if you haven't read that book DON'T. It's evil.

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  11. I've heard of Stone Fox but never read it (thank goodness, apparently). Inquiring minds now want to know, why did the dog die? Did it have some sort of doggie heart attack or stroke? Because that is random that it would sort of just die, and in the middle of a freaking race--what are the odds?!

    My parents read to us every day when I was a kid, in the rest time during the super-hot middle of the day that people call "siesta" in Spanish-speaking countries, and I can't even remember everything we read-- Tolkien and Lewis, for sure, and Milne, Enright, the Little House books, all kinds of Newbury winners-- but those were precious times.

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  12. I'm confused. Who won the race?

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  13. It seems like there were a lot of those kinds of stories growing up. Lots of heroic-dog-who-dies stories. Or "that dies", depending on if you consider dogs to have personality or not. At the time, I had never had a dog and didn't get why everyone cared about them dying so much. If it would've been a cat, THAT might have affected me.

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