Three Dog Tales: Old Yeller, Sounder, Savage Sam

Three classic dog tales brought together in a single volume—Fred Gipson’s Old Yeller, its sequel Savage Sam, and William Armstrong’s Sounder.

Old Yeller (Winner of the Newbery Honor)

When his father sets out on a cattle drive for the summer, fourteen-year-old Travis is left to take care of his mother, younger brother, and the family farm. In the wilderness of early frontier Texas, Travis faces his new and often dangerous responsibilities, with many adventures along the way, all with the help of the big yellow dog who comes to be his best friend.

Savage Sam

In this sequel to Old Yeller, Travis and his younger brother are kidnapped by an Indian raiding party, and Savage Sam, the son of the beloved yellow dog, leads a frantic chase to bring them back.

Sounder (Winner of the John Newbery Medal)

Sounder is a loyal family dog, determined to help his owners through thick and thin. This is the story of a great coon dog and the poor sharecroppers who own him, and of the courage and love that bind a black family together in the face of extreme prejudice from the outside world.

Three classic dog tales brought together in a single volume

Old Yeller
Winner of the Newbery Honor

When his father sets out on a cattle drive for the summer, fourteen-year-old Travis is left to take care of his mother, younger brother, and the family farm. In the wilderness of early frontier Texas, Travis faces his new and often dangerous responsibilities, with many adventures along the way, all with the help of the big yellow dog who comes to be his best friend.

Sounder
Winner of the John Newbery Medal

Sounder is a loyal family dog, determined to help his owners through thick and thin. This is the story of a great coon dog and the poor sharecroppers who own him, and of the courage and love that bind a black family together in the face of extreme prejudice from the outside world.

Savage Sam

In this sequel to Old Yeller, Travis and his younger brother are kidnapped by an Indian raiding party, and Savage Sam, the son of the beloved yellow dog, leads a frantic chase to bring them back.

“The combination of excellent writing and the sensitivity to human emotions places it on a shelf with the classics in juvenile literature.” - Saturday Review of Literature on Old Yeller

“Occasionally, but very rarely, one reads a book with the increasing certainty, as one turns the pages, that a classic is unfolding before one’s eyes.” - Chicago Sunday Tribune on Old Yeller

“Gipson again has given us a purely wonderful trunk of Americana, and one of those rare books to be enjoyed on many latitudes of brow elevation.” - Chicago Sunday Tribune on Savage Sam

“The writing is simple, timeless, and extraordinarily moving. An oustanding book.” - Commonweal on Sounder

“The author writes in details that glow alive.” - New York Times Book Review on Sounder

“The story of a grim situation, a desperate chase, filled with brutality and heroism, yet he has written it with a sense of young wonder and even, at times, with humor.” - New York Times Book Review on Savage Sam