Cracker's Mule by Billy Loran Moore

by Billy Moore

During the polio scare of the 1950s, a boy’s parents send him for the summer from his small-town Florida home to the refuge of his grandparents’ farm in rural Alabama. He settles into country life with Papa and Bigmother. The locals nickname him Cracker, after the term for Florida cowboys. One day he and Papa go to a livestock auction and Papa lets him buy a small mule. The mule turns out to be blind and Cracker must suffer ridicule while caring for the animal he comes to love. Over the summer Cracker teaches the mule to respond to his voice and together they learn to plow. The summer passes with lazy days of fishing in the local creek mixed with frightening episodes involving poisonous snakes. In this idyllic setting, Cracker makes the transition from boy to young man.

Paperback

First published October 7, 2002

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is marked as "young adult," but I don't know of many tween or teen readers who would persist through such a slow, gentle tale with no wizards or zombies or general action to speak of. Moore is a writer from my neck of the woods who tells the story of 11-year-old Cracker's summer with his Papa on a farm in Opp, Alabama. The writing is generally pretty colorful and the characters are well-drawn, but the action is episodic and there's no real story arc or narrative propulsion. There is a great deal about plowing, fishing, and mule-trading. Also, snakes! This author knows his Southern snakes. It was interesting to read about places that are familiar to me, and I'm not sorry I spent a few days with Cracker and his blind mule.