Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered [Hardcover]

Gary Paulsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2007 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

A young city boy is sent to spend the summer on his aunt and uncle's farm. Though he has lived many places over the years, he has never experienced anything like farm life . . . and he has never met anyone like Harris, his daredevil of a cousin. If the two of them can survive wrestling three-hundred-pound pigs and mouse-hunting with toothless old Louie's fire-spitting pet lynx--which, unlike his master, has plenty of teeth--they just might make it through the summer!

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Paulsen choreographs an antic jig of down-on-the-farm frolics in this warm comedy set a few years after WW II. The 11-year-old narrator (who has spent a good portion of his life being shipped off to various relatives) has never seen anything like the Larson homestead, where he is sent to spend the summer; nor has he witnessed anyone like second cousin Harris, prankster extraordinaire. Initiation to country life includes a swift kick in the head by Vivian the cow, run-ins with an angry rooster and the Larson's spirited pet lynx, as well as assorted dares and humiliations conducted by nine-year-old Harris, who eventually becomes a cherished friend. Days are filled with a mixture of tough work and rough play and sometime during the course of his visit the city boy--parented by a couple of "puke drunks"--learns the real meaning of "home." On the Larson farm, readers will experience hearts as large as farmers' appetites, humor as broad as the country landscape and adventures as wild as boyhood imaginations. All this adds up to a hearty helping of old-fashioned, rip-roaring entertainment. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-A nostalgic journey through a boy's breakneck summer. Told by a narrator recalling his experiences the summer he was 11, the stories begin with his being dropped by a deputy at the farm home of a distant relative. "'We heard your folks was puke drunks, is that right?'" asks the beguiling and reckless nine-year-old Harris almost immediately. Of course they are, but that dismal fact of life is forgotten nearly at once as Harris leads the two of them off on one wild adventure after another. As one might suspect from Paulsen, there are no ordinary characters residing on this backwoods farm: there's Vivian, the ornery, kicking cow; 300 pound pigs who don't look kindly on wrestling matches with boys; Ernie, the attack-rooster; Louie, the hired hand with strange table manners and an artistic streak; Buzzer, his pet lynx; and Harris's older sister, Glennis, who is constantly whacking him for swearing. (At times the language does get a little salty.) The plot is a loosely constructed romp with each chapter an episode that's fast paced, highly descriptive, and funny. Using headings such as "In which war is declared and honor established," Paulsen raises readers' expectations and sets the tone for the action to follow. Some stories push beyond believability and edge into tall-tale territory, but it doesn't matter, for this is storytelling in the tradition of Twain and Harte, memorable and humorous and very telling of human nature.
Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WI
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 157 pages
• Publisher: Perfection Learning (March 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756978106
• ISBN-13: 978-0756978105
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (189 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,700,141 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Giordano Bruno - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harris and Me (Paperback)

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 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harris and Me (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 - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered (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.