Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1961 children's novel by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhounds for hunting.

The novel begins in 1961 when a middle-aged man by the name of Billy Colman rescues a redbone hound from neighborhood dogs and takes it home to recover.

The story then travels decades prior to a ten-year-old Billy seeking a pair of redbone hounds for coon hunting.

After seeing a magazine ad for coon hounds, he spends the next two years working odd jobs to earn the $50 he needs to buy a pair of pups and walks 20 miles to Tahlequah to retrieve them.

Billy's grandfather bets Rubin and Rainie Pritchard that Old Dan and Little Ann can tree the legendary "ghost coon" that has evaded hunters for years.

After a challenging hunt, Old Dan and Little Ann succeed in treeing the ghost coon, but Billy, having seen how old and clever the animal is, decides not to kill it.

On the last night, Old Dan and Little Ann trap three raccoons in a single tree, but a sudden blizzard forces Billy to take shelter.

On his last day in the Ozarks, Billy visits Old Dan and Little Ann's graves and finds a giant red fern growing between them.