Jim Kjelgaard always had one theme that was closest to his heart: training dogs. It should be no surprise then that he made the big time with a book about that very theme: Big Red (1945). In the book, Danny Pickett is a poor country boy who gets the job of training Big Red for a wealthy neighbor, Mr. Haggin. The plot follows Danny’s struggles with teaching Red to be a bird dog as well as a show winner. Red and Danny face off against a rogue grizzly, mean employees, and even the big city. The story is a tribute to simple living and an affection for animals. The novel did so well that it became part of the Library of Childhood, alongside Black Beauty, Beautiful Joe, and Bambi. Again, no surprise, when the Disney Company made the book into a film in 1962.
Kjelgaard did so well with Big Red that he made a regular business of writing dog books with two sequels, Irish Red (1951) and Outlaw Red (1953), as well as Snow Dog (1948), Kalak of the Ice (1949), Lion Hound (1955), Desert Dog (1956), Trading Jeff and His Dog (1956), Rescue Dog of the High Pass (1958), The Duck-Footed Hound (1960), and Dave and His Dog, Mulligan (1966), all of which look at that special relationship between a dog and his master.
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