Customer Reviews

Sounder

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(84)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

You gotta walk that lonesome valley. You gotta walk it by yourself. Ain't nobody else gonna walk it for you. You gotta walk it by yourself. -Jesus Walked this Lonesome Valley, (American Spiritual)

In the Author's Note to the copy of this book that I just read, William Armstrong, who was white, says that he first heard this story from an old black teacher who used to worship at his local church :

It is the black man's story, not mine. It was not from Aesop, the Old Testament, or Homer. It was history--his history.

I don't know whether it is, in fact, a true story, but as Armstrong's own assertion acknowledges, it is the stuff of myth.

Sounder is the loyal coon hunting dog of a family of black sharecroppers. At the heart of the tale is the oldest son in this family, plagued by loneliness, helpless rage, and a burning desire to learn to read. The owner of the land they live on has been careful to space families out, presumably so that they won't band together, so they basically have no neighbors and it is too far for the boy to walk to school. The boy's parents are strong willed, and his mother is deeply religious, but they are very reserved. The boy is very much alone, more so because he can't read, and Sounder is very nearly his best friend. Even this rather isolated world is shattered though when the father is sent to prison for stealing a ham and the men who come to take him away shoot Sounder in the process.

The story of how first Sounder and then the family heal themselves and of how the boy eventually learns to read are really moving. The fact that only Sounder is given a name in the story adds to the mythic quality and the mother's constant singing of "Lonesome Valley" imparts a Biblical touch. It may be too powerful for younger kids, but teens and even adults will love it.

GRADE : A

I think the book, Sounder, by William H. Armstrong, was very good. The story is about a boy who has a dog named Sounder. The family is poor so the father must steal to feed his family. His father is taken to jail and Sounder tries to protect him but gets hurt. What I thought was interesting about this book is the story is based upon William Armstrong's teacher's life experience of this. I enjoyed the way it made me think about the story in different ways. I enjoyed the characters because they had distinct personalities. For instance, the boy was very determined to find his father, and the other characters thoughts and emotions were very well described. All of the story elements together helped me picture the story as if I had witnessed it. The setting was described in great detail just like the plot and the characters were also. It was amazing that everything about the book could seem so real. The thing I enjoyed most in the story was the way the dog's bark was described. It was described with beautifully written similes and metaphors to portray how it sounded. The dog, Sounder, was named for it's bark because people could hear the bark louder and richer than any other dog's bark. For all of these reasons I will highly recommend this book with five out of five stars. There were only two things in this story I did not like very much. One is the abruptness of the time periods. In one paragraph it went from seasons to years. Another is that not very much detail about the boy when he was searching for his father was given. Overall though, I felt this book was one that should be read more than once.

In the nearly 35 years since it was published, SOUNDER has lost none of its original power or impact. That's not only the mark of great children's literature, it's the mark of great writing at any level.

SOUNDER is the story of a poor African American family in the late 19th century south. Sounder, the family's hunting dog, is responsible for much of the family income: he finds and tracks game that the father can eat and sell. Problems arise when the local white sheriff and his men think the family has become a little too prosperous. An event then happens which becomes a turning point in the oldest boy's life. (The story is told with painful honesty from his point of view.)

Author Armstrong masterfully drops the reader into a different era, an era we would like to forget. It's not a comfortable time and it's not a comfortable story, but it is a powerful one. The story is a simple one, but Armstrong paints on a large canvas, full of description so vivid and true that we feel we're there, walking on the cold ground, smelling the countryside, and even feeling the wetness of the tears and blood.

I believe it's significant that Sounder is the only character named in the book. This is the boy's story, but it could be any boy. He represents a sort of "every man," or "every child," if you will. The boy learns several important lessons along the way, some of them coming from unlikely sources.

SOUNDER is one of those stories that not only entertain children, but teach them valuable lessons in human nature, relationships, and learning. A very, very important book for us all.

116 pages with illustrations

Sounder is a very depressing book. It tells the story of an African-American family and their coondog, Sounder, living in the harsh life of the South. The story takes place in the cabin of a sharecroppers home and the outlying town. After the mans arrest, the boy, his mother, and Sounder must face the hardships without the father. We really encourage you to read this book.

In my opinion, "Sounder" is an excellent book. It's a book about a black boy growing up with no father and an injured dog in a time of segregation. I liked this book because it is a very emotional book. To me, I felt like I was there with the boy and I could feel his pain. Every move he made, I made with him. If he cried, I cried, if he laughed, I laughed. And though it was a sad book, I enjoy reading about people's lives, whether the book is fiction or non fiction. Therefore, I recommend this book to people who enjoy fiction or non ficton books about people's lives. I also recommend this book to people who like reading about black people and white people who were prejudice. And for me, a person who doesn't like to read, a book has to be pretty good if I like it. And this book I like.

I think the book, Sounder, by Willam H. Armstrong, was an extremely good and exciting story. Sounder is about a poor family who can't afford to support themselves with enough food and supplies to live. So the father tries to steal a pig, but gets caught and sent to jail. His coon dog Sounder, tries to rescue him, but gets shot. However, after he got shot his body can't be found anywhere. The boy, who was nameless, looks everywhere for the corpse, but is unable to find it. The author is very discriptive about emotions and places in the story. At times, I felt as though I was part of the story. The book explains how life was for a black family during the late 1800's. The only thing I did not like in the story was that Sounder was the only character with a name. It seems like the author was too lazy to come up with names for the human characters. However, overall I liked the book very much, and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good story with a happy ending.

I read the book Sounder by William H. Armstrong. This novel is about a poor dad who has to steal to feed his family and he gets caught and sent to jail. It is also the story of the coon dog named Sounder who loves his master. This book takes place in the South a long time ago. It is about a poor family of farmers. The main theme is that the family must go on without the father and they are very poor. The father is sent to do hard labor and they don't know where he has been sent. The boy tries to find his dad for many years.

The boy is sad that his dad is in jail. He goes to town to bring him a cake. The jailers squish the cake. The dad says, "tell her not to send you no more". He doesn't want his boy to come and see him in jail because he doesn't want his son to see him in this environment.

The main characters are Sounder, a young boy, his mother and his father. Sounder is a dog. He is white with brown dots, and he is a coon dog. He is good at hunting. The boy is black. He is about11, and he likes to hunt with his dad. The dad is a farmer, until he goes to jail. The family is very poor. The dad works very hard to get food so that the family does not starve to death.

This book is a great book. The characters were very neat. It is a sad book. It is an adventure book. The part I like the best was when the boy and the dad go off hunting. It was funny when the dog was chasing the animals around. I also like when the boy brought the cake to his when it the cake to his dad when it was his birthday. The police smashed up the cake and the dad got only a little piece. The part did not like was when they were shooting the animals.

The ending was kind of sad. The dad has wanted to have a happy life when he was young. I think he should have tried to have a little fun before he died.

Why are stories about a boy and his dog so heartbreaking? "Sounder" is probably the most heartbreaking of all. It is very hard to read because it has so much pain, but it is about growing up, which is seldom easy, much less so for a young black man in the ninteenth century south. This boy and his dog and family goes through so much hardship, but hardship sometimes comes with lessons that make us strong for life. This is one of the best books ever for young people, and an adult might learn a thing or two before they are through reading it too. There is a lesson in the review by the literature student whose classmate (a writing teacher nonetheless!) mocked his reaction to this book and didn't get it even after reading it for herself. There are good folks with souls in this world, and there are others. It may hurt to have a heart, but how would you like to have none? Buy lots of kleenex if you are going to read this book.

Loving devotion, decency and courage can come from an assortment of places-our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends-but one would not immediately suspect that those qualities would or could come from a scruffy, beat-up old coon dog named Sounder. It just goes to show that pluck and deep affection can soar up and out where we least expect it. In the heart of the old South there is a deep-rooted and pervasive, detrimental thinking that is the general make-up of the majority's attitude. It is a stark divide or code of ethics that one must live by in order to survive. Quite simply and horribly: white is good, black is bad. In the vortex of this dark thinking is a hard working, nameless black family (any black family), innocent people minding their own business and simply trying to survive. There are three things that help them rise above their abysmal poverty: 1) each other 2) stories imbued with biblical truths and 3) Sounder. However, as time elapses and weather conditions grow more harsh, the severity of starvation grips the family, eventually causing the father to commit a crime of despair: stealing food (sound Dickens-like?). Upon getting 'found' out, the misery only doubles when the father is led away (for many years) in chains like a psychopathic cut-throat killer and Sounder (like Old Yeller) is wounded in trying to help his master. But it is in the moment of arrest and thereafter that Sounder evolves from a simple hunting dog to a kind of guardian angel, drifting in and out of the picture, while the eldest son developes from a fatherless boy-searching desperately for him-into a determined young man eager to better himself and his situation. As the bleakness of prejudicial inhumanity slowly abates and the remaining family members start their lives anew, Sounder and the father emgerge back into the picture-physically infirm and mentally wounded by the cruelties of life, but those wounds heal, when, like Christ and Mary, they ascend to the realm of peace, leaving behind a stark truth for the boy and those left behind: "The Lord is my shepard; I shall not want, He maketh me lie down in green pastures." Sounder is a wonderful book for both children and adults and most deserving of its 1970 Newbery Medal.

...Sounder is a book about a boy who has a dog named Sounder. This boy loves his dog so much, he wouldn't trade it for anything. Anyways, one day a white sheriff comes into the boy's house to take his dad to jail (prison). While the sheriff dragged the boy's dad to the wagon to take him away, Sounder runs after the wagon. The sheriff shot sounder until he fell to the ground while the wagon ran over him. Sounder fell dead. The boy was very sad and hurt. The boy buried him. Days passed, later the boy found that sounder was gone from the grave. The boy and his mom think Sounder is alive. Keep reading to see whether or not he's still dead or alive while other interesting things are going on."Suddenly something crashed against the fence in front of he boy's face. A jagged piece of iron tore open the skin and crushed the fingers of one of his hands against the fence." I didn't like that part because all the boy was doing was looking for his dad who was in jail. The sad thing about it was that after the white man threw the iron at him the man started laughing. The boy kept picturing himself throwing that piece of iron right back at the white man, but he didn't. He just walked away. I would want to throw it right back at him also. "There on the cabin porch, on three legs, stood the living skeleton of what had been a mighty coon hound. The tail began to wag and the hide made little ripples back and forth over the ribs." I like that part in the story because, I like the fact that Sounder was alive. I don't understand how Sounder could survive that injury. First, he got shot, and then he got ran-over by a wagon. Even through Sounder can walk only on three legs, has one ear a bloody shoulder, and he almost lost an eye, it's a good thing he is still alive. I don't have another favorite part or another part I don't like. This book was OK. Some parts were interesting while others were boring. The most interesting part that kept me reading was the part when Sounder ran after the wagon and got hurt. Even though it's sad that it had happened to him, it still keeps your reading. I would say that the majority of the people who read this book would like it. I'm sure that the next person who read it will like it.