Harris and Me (1993) Review

Harris and Me is one my all-time favorite books written by Paulsen. Paulsen, a nature enthusiast, often writes stories that are autobiographical reliving his childhood memories. I was first introduced to Paulsen when I was in the 6th grade. Having had difficulties with reading comprehension, my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Fuller, thought it'd be a grand experience for me to read something with a bit of excitement. The tom-boy that I am in conjunction with my "farming" background, Mrs. Fuller turned me onto Gary Paulsen. To this day, I enjoy taking a trip down memory lane as I pull Harris and Me off my book shelf from my personal library.

Harris and Me (1993) is a story of a boy (Gary Paulsen) who is shuffled from relative to relative due to his parents overly-compulsive drinking habits, rightly known as alcoholism. Written in first-person narration, Paulsen tells his story of living on a farm with his cousin, Harris, for one summer. The adventures/trouble that these adolescent boys find themselves in are quite entertaining. Paulsen takes his readers on an adventure of farm life, and the imagination of two boys who smoke hand rolled cigarettes, curse endlessly, and muster up a whole lot of trouble.

 Now farm life is anything but glamorous. The smell of pig muck and horse shit are two distinctive aromas in which a crinkled nose is not an abnormal reaction. Harris and Gary find themselves in "sticky" situations often times lead by their vivid imaginations. For instance, on Gary's first day at the farm he is nailed in the groin by Vivian, a bull, and kicked in the head. He encounters, Ernie, a bastard of a rooster, and a beastly lynx that fetches mice. On top of it all, Harris and Gary find entertainment in looking at pornography in which Gary refers to as "dourty peectures," use boards as rifles while playing Cowboys and Indians or Red Indians, which Harris refers to, using corn stalks as weapons to take out commie pigs, and ultimately learning that urine is a great conductor of electricity when Harris fries his business on an electric fence.

In first person narration, Paulsen is able to make detailed descriptions of coming to terms with his alcoholic parents, discovering the meaning of brotherhood, learning the essence of farm work for a city boy while exploring the great outdoors as his playground. Page after page, the reader is anxiously awaiting to find out what situations Harris and Gary find themselves in and the trouble that lingers. In 156 pages, Paulsen meticulously tells a compelling story of personal struggles with humor and intrigue leaving me with a remembrance of my personal laugh out loud moments of encountering many farming mishaps from my own childhood.