Winner
of the prestigious Newbery-Caldecott Honor Book Award, as well as
many other awards, this juvenile novel tells the story of little
Ben McDonald, a farm boy living in the prairie country of Manitoba.
He is a strange, silent boy who cannot communicate well with people
but has a great affinity for animals. Becoming lost on the great
prairies during a thunderstorm, he takes shelter in a large hole,
which turns out to be the den of a female badger who is injured
and has lost her pups. When she returns, the two are wary of each
other at first, but he helps treat her injured foot and she adopts
him as a replacement to her dead pups. They form a fast friendship
and spend an entire summer together before the boy is finally rescued
and the story ends in a dramatic surprise. Selected as a Reader's
Digest Condensed Book, this novel is widely used in elementary school
classrooms throughout the United States and has sold about a million
copies. It appears in both hardcover and paperback editions and
has been translated into 13 foreign language editions. It was also
made into a two-part television movie by Walt Disney Productions.
Originally published in 1971 by Little, Brown & Co., Boston,
MA., it is still in print in hardcover and trade paperback editions.
Winner
of the prestigious Newbery-Caldecott Honor Book Award, as well as
many other awards, this juvenile novel tells the story of little
Ben McDonald, a farm boy living in the prairie country of Manitoba.
He is a strange, silent boy who cannot communicate well with people
but has a great affinity for animals. Becoming lost on the great
prairies during a thunderstorm, he takes shelter in a large hole,
which turns out to be the den of a female badger who is injured
and has lost her pups. When she returns, the two are wary of each
other at first, but he helps treat her injured foot and she adopts
him as a replacement to her dead pups. They form a fast friendship
and spend an entire summer together before the boy is finally rescued
and the story ends in a dramatic surprise. Selected as a Reader's
Digest Condensed Book, this novel is widely used in elementary school
classrooms throughout the United States and has sold about a million
copies. It appears in both hardcover and paperback editions and
has been translated into 13 foreign language editions. It was also
made into a two-part television movie by Walt Disney Productions.
Originally published in 1971 by Little, Brown & Co., Boston,
MA., it is still in print in hardcover and trade paperback editions.