A Tale of Courage and Heart
On Christmas day, 1961, I received this book as a present. Reading it was a truly life-changing experience. Not only was it the first of many well-loved stories about animals, but it also formally began my love-affair with the animal kingdom.
The story is told by Joe, who lives with his siblings and mother in a ill-kept barn belonging to an abusive and alcoholic character named Jenkins. Jenkins is cruel to all around him, including his beaten down wife, neglected children, viciously used cows and horse as well as his dogs,Joe and Joe's family. There are some decidedly horrific, but realistic portrayals of the kind of abuse that animals go through evey day at the hands of humans like Jenkins and in the end, now all alone, our hero is pushed beyond what he can bear and fights back. Jenkins prevails and maims the dog and leaves Joe to die.
Of course, Joe is rescued and goes to live with the Morrises, a kindly, eccentric and interesting family consisting of a houseful of kids, happy animals and wise adults.The Morris boys give him the name of "Beautiful Joe". And so Beautiful Joe's new life begins.
"Beautiful Joe" is definitely a "Moral Tale", which will always have a place on the world's bookshelves. Kids (and everyone else) enjoy stories where the helpless are rescued and the rescuers win out over the bad guys.
This book has great character development, practical advice on dog training and shows how organization, effort and well-intentioned, intelligent people working together can make things right, even when it seems that the "status quo" and the way people think is too entrenched to be moved. And, by the way, Jenkins does get his comeuppance in a very satisfying way!
