classroom excited about learning
is to "show them a lesson," poet
Robert Frost once told a favorite
English teacher of mine.
That advice, I think, should be
heeded by authors of fiction for
children. Nothing turns off young
readers like preachy book
passages.
Few authors of books for 11-to
16-year-olds taught better lessons
about outdoor survival, fishing,
hunting, trapping, and the art of
living than did author Jim
Kjelgaard.
Young Kjelgaard heroes like
ranger John Belden (Forest Patrol)
invariably made right moral
choices under difficult conditions.
While identifying with the trials
and dangers faced by these
heroes, young readers were
"shown" lessons about the
need to behave ethically
outdoors and the importance
of making right decisions - even
if what you did inconvenienced
you or deprived you of something
you had yearned for.
Belden, for example, said he
could not take a ranger job he
had wanted all his life. At the
time a sudden opening occurred,
he had left traps out in the
wilderness. He could not take the
job until he had brought in every
last trap lest a mink or beaver
suffer needlessly.
It turns out, of course that
Belden's concern for animals is
precisely what the supervisor
offering him a job was looking for.
Such unselfishness is rewarded.
Belden gets the ranger job
anyway.
The message demonstrated in
Kjelgaard's books time and again
is that heroes don't always have
to perform heroic acts to act
heroically - they just have to act
decently.
In fact, the most thrillings acts
of heroism in Kjelgaard's books
are performed by magnificent
dogs. Tawny is the heroic
greyhound in Desert Dog, Buck is
the unflinching tracker in Lion
Hound, and Chiri is a valiant
staghound-Husky mix who
The Outsider
Hank Nuwer
repeatedly saves his master's life
in Snow Dog and its sequel, Wild
Trek. His best-known canine
heroes are magnificent Irish
Setter hounds in the novels Big
Red, Irish Red, and Outlaw Red.
Born in 1910, Kjelgaard
(pronounced Kell-guard) wrote a
long list of books during his short
life. At his death in 1959, he had
written about 20 titles for Holiday
House, Inc. Today, Bantam
Skylark Books, in an
arrangement with Holiday House
has kept 10 of Kjelgaard's books
in paperback editions, including
A Nose for Trouble and Stormy,
my two Kjelgaard favorites.
In addition to life lessons,
Kjelgaard's books are known for
their hunting, fishing, survival
and trapping tips. Readers learn
to make a raft, to navigate a wild
river, to make rabbit snares and
primitive weapons in a pinch, and
to make a fire-stick.
Kjelgaard, reared in rugged
Pennsylvania high country, was
an accomplished angler, hunter
and trapper, and he also milked
the wilderness experiences of his
brother, a forest ranger, for story
plots.
After perusing the Internet this
weekend, I found I'm hardly alone
in my regard for Kjelgaard. Many
young readers and several adults
(including teachers and
librarians) have posted tributes to
Kjelgaard on various Web sites.
A few weeks again, the Anderson
its Kjelgaard titles. For $1 a bag, I
added five well-thumbed books to
my growing collection. But even
as I bagged these treasures, I kept
wishing they'd been left on the
shelves for future youngsters to
discover.
Hank Nuwer, a freelance writer,
covers outdoor sports for The Star
Press.