Wilson Rawls 1913年出生于美国Oklahoma州, 拥有印第安人血统，由于当时美国公立教育不发达，幼年时接受Homeschooling在家教育，妈妈给他买来的一本杰克.伦敦的《荒野的呼唤》激发起他对写作的兴趣，并从此将杰克.伦敦视为偶像，立志将来也要成为一个专门写狗的作家。1929年美国大萧条时代开始，仅仅16岁的他为养家糊口四处打工，他做过木工、搬运工等等很多工作。和偶像杰克伦敦一样，他尽量抓住一切空余时间创作，但是由于受教育有限，他一直苦恼于自己的语法及拼写错误，不敢将自己数十万字的手稿示人。1958年结婚前夕他烧毁所有文稿决定开始放弃梦想，过正常人的“正经”生活。然而他的作家梦想仍时时折磨他，妻子得知后鼓励他重新写作。后经妻子编辑后这些手稿被刊登在报刊杂志上，1961年集结成书发表，轰动一时，无数人读后为之动容。他的这第一本自传体式小说书Where the red fern grows 后来被改编成电影。Wilson Rawls也终于在48岁时实现了自己儿时的作家梦！

  《夏日历险》这本书是 Woodrow Wilson Rawls发表于1976年的第二部作品，该书是美国教育协会推荐优秀读物，曾获美国六项读者评选大奖，1998年被搬上屏幕。 12岁的男孩Jay Berry Lee，一直想买一匹属于他的小马，于是在夏天就到爷爷经营的店里打工赚钱。由于生意并不好，眼看他存钱买马的计画就要泡汤了，然而在有一天，他和他的狗儿Rowdy却意外发现30只由马戏团逃跑的猴子，这30只聪明的灵长动物藏匿在隐密处躲避追捕，没想到居然让Jay给发现了，后来Jay 知道马戏团发出高额报酬的悬赏令，便决定要去逮这30只猴子，这正是他实现赚钱买小马心愿的大好机会！看似写孩子的夏日历险，却蕴含着很多育儿哲理。掩卷反思，如果家里有残疾孩子，我们能像书中的父母和祖父母那样静静等待，细心引导吗？习惯了管束包办的我们能做到与孩子真正平等地沟通吗？从这个意义上这本书的确值得推荐给大人看。

这是他给年轻人的写作建议：

Do a lot of reading. Study the style of a lot of authors you admire but do not try to copy their style. You will have to find a style of your own. Write in a way that is natural for you.

Read all the books you can find on creative writing. Your librarian can help you find books that will help you.

Read all the books you can find on creative writing. Your librarian can help you find books that will help you.

Do not wait to start writing. You are never too young to start. Your first story should be based on something you know well. Make it exciting. Do not worry about grammar and punctuation on your first draft. The important thing is to get the story down on paper. It will probably need a lot of revising and rewriting. You can worry about grammar and punctuation then. Remember, the more you write, the better you will be.

Don't get discouraged. If you can keep trying and don't give up, you will make it some day. The road can be rough but the day you see your work in print makes it all worth it.

 以下为Where the Red Fern Grows 的音频资料地址：

1 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/BUoL19SNfIg/ 

2 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/nmPDlrVwawc/  

3 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/G06d1wlOZxU/ 

4 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/zfqcjM8gK-M/  

5 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/hbjFMPY8_sE/ 

6 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/XZD_JxuCYfA/ 

Where the Red Fern Grown 电影视频地址链接