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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Hunting and the killing of animals appropriate to the 19th-century Florida setting
Language
None
No profanity; Rawlings's warm vernacular prose
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Barely any
The emotional cost of the ending — what Jody loses and what he gains — is genuinely moving but handled with craft appropriate for young readers
What this book is about
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows Jody Baxter, a boy growing up in the backwoods of Florida in the 1870s, who raises an orphaned fawn he names Flag. The novel is a coming-of-age classic about the end of childhood and the responsibilities of life. The ending is genuinely devastating but earned. One of the great American novels for young readers — Rawlings writes the Florida scrubland with extraordinary love and precision.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Sad ending; death of a beloved animal
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