by Gary Paulsen
Harris and Me is the hilarious remembrance of one boy's summer spent with Harris and his family because his parents are unfit to care for him. The boys spend the summer playing and working outdoors, getting into mischief, and loving life. Two of the crazy things the boys try are playing war with pigs and putting a motor on a bicycle, but no one can tell these adventures like Gary Paulsen!
Critical Analysis
Oh, I wish I knew these boys from the early 1900's! Gary Paulsen creates a whole believable family, but the boys are perfectly crafted into real people. Maybe that's because this book is partially autobiographical, but Paulsen brings such a fullness with his writing that I bet the story is better than the memories. Paulsen makes a harsh reality, drunken parents, palatable for his young hero and readers. Most will long for days when such a summer, spent on farm full of love, work, and craziness, was possible. Rich characterization, the perfect setting, and fantastically funny writing come together in Harris and Me to make a modern classic in young adult literature
Review Excerpts
* Readers will experience hearts as large as farmers' appetites, humor as broad as the county landscape and adventures as wild as boyhood imaginagtions... A hearty helping of old-fashioned, rip-roaring entertainment. -- Publishers Weekly
* Includes laugh-out-loud passages as well as heaps of nostalgia. --The Horn Book
Connections
* Video interview with Gary Paulsen - worth a watch, certainly - and other Paulsen stuff!
* Here is an excellent author interview with Paulsen from the New York Public Library.
* Comment from Harrison, age 13: "I like it because it has an old-fashioned air and plenty of humor."
* Expert from Harris and Me
All this time Harris had been standing, watching, his hands behind him. I hadn't really looked at him, but when I moved to take the box from Glennis the grown-ups fell in together and started walking toward the house and Harris came up alongside me just as I grabbed the box.
Physically he was of a set piece with Glennis. Blond - hair bleached white by sun - face perpetually sunburned and red with a peeling nose, freckles sprinkled like brown pepper over everything, and even, white teeth, except that when Harris smiled there were two gone from the front. He was wearing a set of patched bib overalls. No shirt, no shoes - just freckles and the bibs, which were so large he seemed to move inside them.
"Hi."
He walked beside me, his hands still to his rear. I would subsequently find that this posture could be dangerous, meant he was hiding something, but I didn't know this soon so I nodded. "Hi."
"We heard your folks was puke drunks, is that right?"
"Harris!" Glennis was was walking on the other side of me and her voiced snapped. "That's not polite, to talk that way."
"Well you can just blow it out your butt, you old cow...."
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