In the nearly fifty years since Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' novel The Yearling(1938) was published, it has joined the distinguished ranks of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Two Years Before the Mast (1840), and The Last of the Mohicans (1826)-all books not originally intended for children that nevertheless have become classic "boys' books." During her lifetime, Rawlings published nothing intended for children. The Secret River (1955), a picture book, was published posthumously, but it is a slight story of a child who saves her father and her forest community from "hard times" by catching a large num…
