Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses animal cruelty and death. 

Gary Paulsen introduces the book, emphasizing that the story requires the reader’s participation. He suggests that if books could “be more,” the book would have “the smells of old farms” (4), like the scents of hay, manure steaming during a winter day, calves being born, corn, and freshly fried potatoes. The book would also give sounds, like the sounds of bucksaws when men cut trees, cows chewing grass in the barn on a winter’s night, or the scream of pigs being slaughtered. Finally, if the book could be more, it would have light, like the “soft gold light” (5) beaming through the barn cracks, lantern glow, the grey cast of a winter day, or the morning radiance in summer when the cows wait to be milked. Because books cannot have smells, sounds, and light, they need readers to “bring” these elements to the stories from their imaginations.

Eldon is an 11-year-old boy living on a large Minnesota farm at the edge of a forest with his brother Wayne, older by two years; his parents; his Uncle David; and Nels, Uncle David’s old friend.