Wilson Rawls

Wilson Rawls, born Woodrow Wilson Rawls, was an American writer best known for his books Where the Red Fern Grows and Summer of the Monkeys. Wilson Rawls was born on September 24, 1913, in Scraper, Oklahoma to Minzy and Winnie Rawls. He grew up on a farm in the Ozark Mountains, the setting he described in his novels. Since there were no schools in the area, Rawls’ mother taught Wilson and his sisters how to read and write. Rawls’ grandmother would order books for his mother, and she used these books to teach her children how to read. Their mother would read the books, and then... the children would take turns reading the books back to their mother.Holtze, 1989 . In the beginning, Rawls was not interested in reading books because his grandmother always ordered “girl” books such as Little Red Riding Hood and Chicken Little. One day his grandmother ordered a book that changed Rawls’ life. It was a story about a man and a dog. The book was Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. After ,reading the book, Rawls’ mother gave it to him to keep.It was his first “very own” book, and Rawls carried it with him wherever he went.
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