Harris and Me [Paperback]

Gary Paulsen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 1, 1995 | Age Range: 8 and up | Lexile Measure: 1060L (What's this?)

This summer will be different. That's for sure. When an eleven-year-old city boy is dropped off to stay on a farm with relatives, he doesn't know what to expect. His cousin Harris soon takes care of that. Harris is rude and crude and finds trouble at every turn. He leads his city cousin into everything from wrestling slippery pigs to catching mice to a daredevil jump out of a barn loft. And that's not all. There are swimming and cowboy movies and enough good food to fill the boys up for days.

Farm life is hard but never lonely. Before long, Harris's cousin has found a place where he belongs. If only summer could last forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"A hearty helping of old-fashioned, rip-roaring entertainment," said PW about this post-WWII story of an 11-year-old boy sent to spend the summer on his relatives' farm. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Paulsen can be very funny when he wants to be. In this novel, he has created a character that youngsters will love to read about, but would hate to be anywhere near in real life. Harris is a crude, rude, scheming troublemaker, but he has a sense of fun and excitement that makes readers want know what he'll do next. Like his literary predecessors Soup and The Great Brain, Harris causes most of the trouble while the less mischievous narrator gets a good part of the blame (and often the pain). Half of the laughs come about as a result of Harris's crazy ideas, like attaching a washing-machine motor to a bicycle. Equally amusing, though, is Paulsen's tongue-in-cheek first-person narration. PG-13 Award: In the spirit of exaggerated realism, there's plenty in this book to offend some adults, including French postcards, plenty of damns and hells, and more than one serious injury to Harris's "business."
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440409942
• ISBN-13: 978-0440409946
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (195 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,370,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary Paulsen is one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers. He has written more than one hundred book for adults and young readers, and is the author of three Newberry Honor titles: Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room. He divides his time among Alaska, New Mexico, Minnesota, and the Pacific.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#45 in Books > Teens

#45 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Your Typical Children's Writer April 7, 2008

By Giordano Bruno

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Gary Paulsen never shuns writing about real life to spare your kiddies' artificial innocence. His books deal with the pains and joys of childhood - parental quarrels, alcoholism, abusive behavior, etc. - more forthrightly than any other children's writer I encountered with my own son as he was learning to read, and my son loved Paulsen's book enough to choose them for himself.

"Harris and Me" is a first-person narrative, told by a boy whose dysfunctional family has sent him to live with kinfolk on a backcountry farm in Minnesota. Harris is the bigger boy whose family has the farm. He becomes the narrator's surrogate older brother and role model for devil-may-care enjoyment of boyish wildness. The narrator sense that his own nature is different from Harris's but he treasures Harris's spirit. It's a quick read for an adult, a kind of hyper-condensed adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. It's funny fun for the right kid to read silently or out loud, but children raised in a household devoted to propriety may find it incomprehensible, since propriety is not a virtue on Gary Paulsen's farm.

One might suspect that this narrative, like many of Paulsen's, is semi-autobiographical. I'm very certain, however, that Paulsen has somehow gotten ahold of my unwritten memoirs, and used MY childhood for his model. I've seldom read anything that depicts the experiences of farm life, in Minnesota or in Sweden, fifty years ago or today, as accurately as this short book. I mention Sweden because I lived as a boy on a diary farm near Nykoping that was identical to Harris's. Like Paulsen, I've traveled very far, physically and culturally, from that farm, but in my heart of hearts I'm still Harris, and/or his admiring sidekick, myself. For a writer like Paulsen, "home" is not so much a place but rather a time of life.

Paulsen's most popular books are imaginative adventure tales featuring intrepid boys. "The Hatchet" is his best seller. Shorter, more personal books like "Harris and Me" are, in my opinion, better choices for kids to read, offering flashes of insight into maturity, however challenging, instead of day-dream invulnerability.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Plain fun(ny) October 16, 2000

By Krista

Format:Paperback

I grew up in a suburban area, but remember countless hours spent outside, laughing and breathless, playing with friends. "Harris and Me" recalls some of the energy and hijinks of childhood, arousing quite a few laughs and some nostalgia.

The story is set on a farm during the 1950s. The unnamed narrator, possibly Paulsen himself, spends a glorious summer with relatives -- his uncle Knute, Aunt Clair, and cousins Glennis and Harris. Harris becomes the narrator's constant companion and partner in crime, through hours of intense farm labor, enormous and frequent meals, and non stop high energy play.

Some of the boys' pranks are a bit too slap-stick for my tastes, such as an incident involving urinating on an electric fence. And some characters, such as the dirty, mute farmhand who seems to inhale pancakes, are little more than cartoons.

What I remember most about the book, though, are its many funny moments -- Harris believing that a movie (which he has seen several times, no less) is really happening...ambushing the pigs...attaching a motor to a bike and zooming down the road. "Harris and Me" captures the long, carefree days of childhood with joy and zest.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Book November 21, 2002

By R. Fawcett

Format:School & Library Binding

This book deserves at least 10 stars. I confess, it is my favorite book of all time. Read the entire first chapter and I guarantee that you won't be able to put it down. It is hilarious!

This autobiographical novel is about the summer Gary Paulsen spent at his cousin's farm. Harris is a real person! And so is Gary - so he didn't get to choose the ending to this story. Unfortunately, Gary's parents were mean drunks. But, somehow, he survived. And he has given us some of the best survival stories kids will ever read. So, if you're looking for a sequel, pick up one of his other books. Many are based on his life.

I had the honor of meeting Gary a few years ago at an author visit. He read aloud the chapter about his experience with the electric fence. We laughed so hard, tears were streaming down our faces. This story brings back some great memories of my childhood and the wild stunts my brothers pulled when we were growing up on our family farm.