{"product_id":"summer-of-the-monkeys-isbn-9780440415800","title":"Summer of the Monkeys","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the beloved classic \u003ci\u003eWhere the Red Fern Grows\u003c\/i\u003e comes a timeless adventure about a boy who discovers a tree full of monkeys. \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   The last thing fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee expects to find while trekking through the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma is a tree full of monkeys. But then Jay learns from his grandpa that the monkeys have escaped from a traveling circus, and there’s a big reward for the person who finds and returns them.\u003cbr\u003e   His family could really use the money, so Jay sets off, determined to catch them. But by the end of the summer, Jay will have learned a lot more than he bargained for—and not just about monkeys.\u003cbr\u003e   From the beloved author of \u003ci\u003eWhere the Red Fern Grows\u003c\/i\u003e comes another memorable adventure novel filled with heart, humor, and excitement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eHonors and Praise for Wilson Rawls’ \u003ci\u003eWhere the Red Fern Grows\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e Top 100 Children’s Novel\u003cbr\u003e An NPR Must-Read for Kids Ages 9 to 14 \u003cbr\u003e Winner of 4 State Awards\u003cbr\u003e Over 7 million copies in print!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eA rewarding book\u003c\/b\u003e . . . [with] careful, precise observation, all of it rightly phrased.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eOne of the great classics of children’s literature\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Any child who doesn’t get to read this beloved and powerfully emotional book has missed out on an important piece of childhood for the last 40-plus years.” —Common Sense Media\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eAn exciting tale of love and adventure\u003c\/b\u003e you’ll never forget.” —\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eHonors and Praise for Wilson Rawls’ \u003ci\u003eWhere the Red Fern Grows\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e Top 100 Children’s Novel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e An NPR Must-Read for Kids Ages 9 to 14 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Winner of 4 State Awards\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Over 7 million copies in print!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eA rewarding book\u003c\/b\u003e . . . [with] careful, precise observation, all of it rightly phrased.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eOne of the great classics of children’s literature\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Any child who doesn’t get to read this beloved and powerfully emotional book has missed out on an important piece of childhood for the last 40-plus years.” —Common Sense Media\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eAn exciting tale of love and adventure you’ll never forget.\u003c\/b\u003e” —\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eA book of unadorned naturalness.\u003c\/b\u003e” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eWritten with so much feeling and sentiment\u003c\/b\u003e that adults as well as children are drawn with a passion.” —\u003ci\u003eArizona Daily Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “It’s a story about a young boy and his two hunting dogs and . . \u003cb\u003e. I can’t even go on without getting a little misty.\u003c\/b\u003e” —\u003ci\u003eThe Huffington Post\u003c\/i\u003eWilson Rawls is the author of the timeless classic \u003ci\u003eWhere the Red Fern Grows\u003c\/i\u003e and the acclaimed novel \u003ci\u003eSummer of the Monkeys\u003c\/i\u003e. He was born on a small farm in the Ozark Mountains and spent much of his boyhood roaming northeastern Oklahoma with his only companion, an old bluetick hound.\u003cbr\u003e   Since its publication more than fifty years ago, \u003ci\u003eWhere the Red Fern Grows\u003c\/i\u003e has assumed the status of a classic and has been made into a widely acclaimed motion picture. Rawls' second novel, \u003ci\u003eSummer of the Monkeys\u003c\/i\u003e, received rave reviews and won the prestigious California Young Reader Medal Award, among other accolades.Chapter One\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUp until I was fourteen years old, no boy on earth could have been happier. I didn't have a worry in the world. In fact, I was beginning to think that it wasn't going to be hard at all for me to grow up. But just when things were really looking good for me, something happened. I got mixed up with a bunch of monkeys and all of my happiness flew right out the window. Those monkeys all but drove me out of my mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf I had kept this monkey trouble to myself, I don't think it would have amounted to much; but I got my grandpa mixed up in it. I felt pretty bad about that because Grandpa was my pal, and all he was trying to do was help me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI even coaxed Rowdy, my old bluetick hound, into helping me with this monkey trouble. He came out of the mess worse than Grandpa and I did. Rowdy got so disgusted with me, monkeys, and everything in general, he wouldn't even come out from under the house when I called him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was in the late 1800s, the best I can remember. Anyhow -- at the time, we were living in a brand-new country that had just been opened up for settlement. The farm we lived on was called Cherokee land because it was smack dab in the middle of the Cherokee Nation. It lay in a strip from the foothills of the Ozark Mountains to the banks of the Illinois River in northeastern Oklahoma. This was the last place in the world that anyone would expect to find a bunch of monkeys.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI wasn't much bigger than a young possum when Mama and Papa settled on the land; but after I grew up a little, Papa told me all about it. How he and Mama hadn't been married very long, and were sharecropping in Missouri. They were unhappy, too; because in those days, being a sharecropper was just about as bad as being a hog thief. Everybody looked down on you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMama and Papa were young and proud, and to have people look down on them was\u003cbr\u003ealmost\tmore than they could stand. They stayed to themselves, kept on sharecropping,\u003cbr\u003eand saving every dollar they could; hoping that someday they could buy a farm of their\u003cbr\u003eown.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust when things were looking pretty good for Marna and Papa, something happened.\u003cbr\u003eMama hauled off and had twins -- my little sister Daisy and me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePapa said that I was born first, and he never saw a healthier boy. I was as pink as a sunburnt huckleberry, and as lively as a young squirrel in a corncrib. It was different with Daisy though. Somewhere along the line something went wrong and she was born\u003cbr\u003ewith her right leg all twisted up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe doctor said there wasn't much wrong with Daisy's old leg. It had something to do with the muscles, leaders, and things like that, being all tangled up. He said there were doctors in Oklahoma City that could take a crippled leg and straighten it out as straight as a ramrod. This would cost quite a bit of money though; and money was the one thing that Mama and Papa didn't have.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMama cried a lot in those days, and she prayed a lot, too; but nothing seemed to do any good. It was bad enough to be stuck there on that sharecropper's farm; but to have a little daughter and a twisted leg, and not be able to do anything for her, hurt worst of all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen one day, right out of a clear blue sky, Mama got a letter from Grandpa. She read it and her face turned as white as the bark on a sycamore tree. She sat right down on the dirt floor of our sod house and started laughing and crying all at the same time. Papa said that after he had read the letter, it was all he could do to keep from bawling a little, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrandpa and Grandma were living down in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. They owned one of those big old country stores that had everything in it. Grandpa wasn't only a storekeeper; he was a trader, too, and a good one. Papa always said that Grandpa was the only honest trader he ever knew that could trade a terrapin out of its shell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his letter, Grandpa told Mama and Papa that he had done some trading with a Cherokee Indian for sixty acres of virgin land, and that it was theirs if they wanted it. All they had to do was come down and make a farm out of it. They could pay him for it any way they wanted to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, the way Mama was carrying on, there wasn't but one thing Papa could do. The next morning, before the roosters started crowing, he took what money they had saved and headed for town. He bought a team of big red Missouri mules and a covered wagon. Then he bought a turning plow, some seed corn, and a milk cow. This took about all the money he had.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was way in the night when Papa got back home. Mama hadn't even gone to bed. She had everything they owned packed, and was ready to go. They were both so eager to get away from that sharecropping farm that they started loading the wagon by moonlight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe last thing Papa did was to make a two-baby cradle. He took Mama's old washtub and tied a short piece of rope to each handle. To give the cradle a little bit of bounce, he tied the ropes to two cultivator springs and hung the whole contraption to the bows inside the covered wagon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMama thought that old washtub was the best baby cradle she had ever seen. She filled it about half full of corn shucks and quilts, and then put Daisy and me down in it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter taking one last look at the sod house, Papa cracked the whip and they left Missouri for the Oklahoma Territory.","brand":"Yearling","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299719139557,"sku":"NP9780440415800","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780440415800.jpg?v=1767737517","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/summer-of-the-monkeys-isbn-9780440415800","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}