Shiloh (book)
Encyclopedia
Shiloh is a Newbery Medal
-winning children's novel
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
published in 1991
. The 65th book by Naylor, it is the first in a trilogy about a young boy and the title character, an abused dog. Naylor decided to write Shiloh after an emotionally taxing experience in West Virginia where she encountered an abused dog.
Narrator and protagonist Marty Preston lives in the hills of Friendly, West Virginia
. After finding an abused beagle
owned by his brutal neighbor Judd Travers, Marty defies his society's standards of not meddling with each others' business. Marty resolves to steal and hide the dog, naming him Shiloh and fabricating a web of lies to keep his secret. After his theft is discovered, Marty discovers Judd shooting a deer out of season and blackmails him into selling Shiloh to him. Because he lacks the money to buy Shiloh, Marty resolutely works for Judd doing numerous chores.
Primarily a Bildungsroman
and adventure novel
, the novel depicts the emotional tribulations and maturing of an 11-year-old boy. According to scholars, the novel's main themes are ethics
, consequentialism
, religion and morality, and animal–human relationships. Marty learns that morality is confounding and must choose between two unpalatable choices: rescuing the abused Shiloh through stealing and lying and allowing Judd to keep abusing Shiloh.
Reviewers generally gave positive reviews of the book and were impressed by the novel's suspense and vernacular language. In addition to the Newbery Medal, Shiloh has received several state awards voted upon by children, including the Sequoyah Children's Book Award, the Mark Twain Readers Award, and the William Allen White Children's Book Award
. In 1996, the book was adapted into a movie
. The novel spawned two sequels, Shiloh Season and Saving Shiloh, published in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Shiloh is taught in many American elementary school courses in the United States.
, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was raised in Indiana
and Illinois
in the 1930s during the Great Depression
. During her childhood, she was hardly given any toys. Instead, with her parents reading to her every night, books formed a major part of her childhood—"the happiest part". Her parents read a variety of literature to her, including Bible stories, Wind in the Willows, and Mark Twain
's novels, until she was 14. After she became a parent, she read to her children in the mornings because of their evening activities. Having published over 100 books, Naylor wrote a short story
for a church magazine when she was 16 years old and a book in her early 30s. When she wrote and published Shiloh, her 65th novel, she was living in Bethesda, Maryland
with her husband Rex, a speech pathologist whom she married in May 1960. She has two adult sons and four grandchildren.
Naylor writes books for children, teens, and adults. Writing sporadically, Naylor typically takes several years to finish a book. With about 10 notebooks next to her workspace, she writes down story ideas and character traits when she thinks of them. She considered Shiloh to be a deviation from the norm because she finished the first draft in merely eight weeks.
Edited by Jon Landman, Shiloh was published by Atheneum Books
on September 30, 1991.
, where an eleven-year-old boy named Marty Preston finds a stray beagle
wandering in the hills near his house. The dog follows him home, and Marty names him Shiloh, a tribute to a neighborhood schoolhouse. Shiloh's real owner is Judd Travers, who owns several hunting dog
s. Fearing for the dog's safety because Judd drinks and treats his hunting dogs poorly, Marty does not want to return Shiloh. His father insists Shiloh be returned to his owner and they take the dog to Judd Travers.
Shiloh returns to Marty who hides him from his family. Concealing Shiloh in the woods in a wire pen he builds, Marty smuggles some of his dinner to the dog each evening. After his mother discovers Marty feeding the dog, he persuades her not to reveal the secret. That night, Shiloh is attacked by a German Shepherd Dog
while in his make-shift cage and his family discovers Marty has been lying and hiding the dog. After taking the dog to the town doctor, the family must return Shiloh to his rightful owner.
Before doing so, Marty travels up to Travers' house to try to convince Travers to allow him to keep Shiloh. Judd does not see Marty approaching, and shoots a doe out of season, which would mean a stiff fine Judd cannot afford. Marty lets Judd know he knows, and attempts to blackmail
him out of Shiloh. Judd and Marty eventually negotiate a deal in which Marty will earn Shiloh for 40 dollars, paid with 20 hours of working for Judd. At the end of the first week, Judd says that he will not keep his end of the deal because the evidence of the dead doe has with the passage of time disappeared. Second, the contract that Marty had him sign is worthless in the state of West Virginia without the signature of a witness. Despite Judd's pointed disapproval of his work, Marty continues to work for him. They begin discussing dogs and Judd's father who began physically abusing Judd when he was four years old. In the end, Judd warms to Marty, relents, and lets him keep Shiloh.
Rex asked her if she would have a "nervous breakdown" or if she would "do something about it". That "something" referred to writing a book and she did. She believed that someone had abused the dog and was confronted by a series of questions:
The Maddens resided near Shiloh, West Virginia
, where Naylor found the abused dog in 1989, so she decided to name the book's dog Shiloh. Because the Maddens' post office address is in Friendly, West Virginia
, Naylor chose the town as her book's setting.
Trudy Madden, who with her husband adopted the abused dog Naylor saw, said in a 1997 interview that Naylor's description of Shiloh, West Virginia, was precise. By following the directions in Shiloh and its sequels, the town's houses, mill, and schoolhouse could be located easily.
in main character Marty Preston's voice. The prose has perceptible grammatical errors and a bucolic tone. Arlene Perly Rae
of Toronto Star
wrote that the novel is written in the "uncomplicated style" for which Naylor is distinguished. Jane Langton
of The New York Times Book Review
stated that the novel was written in a "comfortable, down-home style". Writing that the main story in Shiloh is Marty's struggle in his mind with morality, Langston noted that it is "presented simply, in a way any third- or fourth-grade reader can understand".
Scholar Leona W. Fisher wrote in Children's Literature Association Quarterly
that the novel employs a seldom used yet ingenious literary technique. The story is told with "the sustained internal monologue presented almost exclusively in the present tense". The mores of his society and the actions of adults are strained through Marty's mind concurrently with his emotional agony and ethical judgments. The dialogue of the other characters tempers but does not counteract the "exclusivity of his linguistic point of view" because Marty is the sole narrator.
Shiloh has a "compacted time-frame, bounded by the past-tense opening and closing". Fisher noted that because the novel's events are confined to several weeks in the summer, there is no need for a "panoramic sweep" of the actions. The reader can concentrate solely on Marty's ethical crisis. Conveying the mood of the novel is also mostly confined to Marty's thoughts and current action. Naylor uses the past-perfect verb "had" on several occasions to depict the tones of the scenes. This usage conveys turning-points in the story, transferring the reader from the "immediate tension" of the present to a growing cognizance.
Scholar Kathie Cerra praised the novel for its "vivid sensory detail", which enables readers to experience Marty's "inner life of thought and feeling". In Marty's captivating first-person narrative, he shows how he feels when he tells falsities to his parents and when he embraces the wriggling Shiloh.
Scholars Alethea Helbig and Agnes Perkins wrote that the "Appalachian setting is well evoked, in both its beauty and its code of ethics that Marty must defy to save the dog". Reviewer Ellen Mandel of Booklist
wrote that the "West Virginia dialect richly seasons the true-to-life dialogue". Kenneth E. Kowen of School Library Journal
perceived an incongruity in Naylor's depiction of Marty's family. He noted that Marty's father is a postman, one of the best paid jobs in suburban settings. In the novel, however, the family is poverty-stricken.
Shiloh is a Bildungsroman
and adventure novel
. Salem Press
's Carol Ann Gearhart has characterized the novel as domestic realism
.
Marty undergoes a physical and emotional transformation in his quest to save Shiloh. After confronting an abusive adult, he mentally grows, concluding: "I saved Shiloh and opened my eyes some. Now that ain't bad for eleven."
Judds' inability to love and cherish Shiloh is borne of the physical abuse he suffered as a child. Conversely, Marty's love of Shiloh is innate because of the love his family nurtured in him.
. In both novels, boys fall in love with dogs owned by others. The dogs repeatedly return to the children in "mirror imag[e] scenes", while the ethical fathers try to convince them not to betray their morals and fall for the dogs.
Shiloh's faithfulness to Marty is portrayed in "affective human terms". In the secluded, bucolic West Virginia, Shiloh becomes the masculine friend Marty did not have. The beagle adopts the persona of the brother Marty never had. Marty doggedly believes that Shiloh and other animals are creatures with feelings. Attune with Marty's emotions, the beagle is considered by Marty to be a confidante. On the other hand, in pastoral West Virginia, some adults consider animals to bring only economic benefits to humans. Morris stated that children like Marty defy their rural culture and advance to an upper-class mindset.
Marty's parents subscribe to the belief that because Shiloh is Judd's property, they should not be concerned with how Judd treats Shiloh. They tell Marty: "You've got to go by the law. The law says that a man that pays money for a dog owns that dog." At odds with this philosophy, Marty strongly believes that love—not money—should determine ownership.
s. To harbor Shiloh from the antagonist Judd and his principled parents, Marty must steal food and tell falsehoods. His dishonest actions serve as a contrast to his conscientious persona and his benevolent rescuing of the dog. Every night, Marty prays, "Jesus ... which do you want me to do? Be one hundred percent honest and carry that dog back to Judd so that one of your creatures can be kicked and starved all over again, or keep him here and fatten him up to glorify your creation?"
According to Judith B. Rosenfeld of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Naylor makes the statement that children raised in healthy families make ethical choices and ultimately thrive. In a 1994 interview Naylor said: Naylor believes that there is much "gray area between right and wrong". Instead of following the straightforward correct path, Marty is forced to select between two unpalatable choices. Reviewer Matt Berman of The Times-Picayune believed that the book's main moral is that "nothing is as simple as it seems". Entertainment Weekly
Michele Landsberg
praised the novel, writing that Shiloh is a "strongly persuasive story of moral growth, told without a hint of moralizing and with acute insight into a preadolescent's inner life".
In the children's literature journal The ALAN Review published by The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents
, Edgar H. Thompson, Connie B. Blevins, and Allison Fitzgerald argued that protagonist Marty "consistently behaves" at levels 5 and 6 of Kohlberg's stages of development. For instance, on his walk to Judd's house, he wonders: "Easy as pie for Judd Travers to put a bullet hole in my head, say he didn't see me." Despite his fears, Marty continues walking to Judd's house, persistent on protecting Shiloh despite potential bodily harm and even death to himself. The authors brooded over whether an 11 year old could attain such an elevated level despite most adults' never being able to do so. Ultimately noting that the Newbery Committee and thousands of readers consider Marty to be realistic, they concluded that Marty is a positive role model for children to strive to be.
, Claudia Mills wrote that Shiloh deals with "consequentialism
pitted against deontological
respect for moral duty". Taught from his youth to be respectful to others and worship God, Marty is confounded by the injustice of Shiloh's being abused. He seeks to justify his unethical actions by thinking that "[a] lie don't seem a lie anymore when it's meant to save a dog." Consequentionalists base the worthiness of a person's act on its result. Marty's act of saving Shiloh is worse for Shiloh's well-being. After Shiloh is concealed in the woods, a German shepherd attacks the beagle, causing to become permanently lame. Marty laments: "Worst of all, I'd brought Shiloh here to keep him from being hurt, and what that German shepherd done to him was probably worse than anything Judd Travers would have brought himself to do, short of shootin' him, anyways."
Mills noted that consequentialism does not merely expect that the consequences to one entity is determined. It requires a review of the consequences to all. When Judd's out-of-season shooting of a deer is observed by Marty, Marty uses the incident to blackmail him to sell Shiloh to him. However, this places deer in the future in danger of Judd's hunting. Marty sadly reflects: "By lettin' him get away with this, I'm putting other deer in danger. He kill this one out of season, he'll figure maybe he can kill some more. To save Shiloh, I'm making it harder for deer". In essence, he selects the "domestic love over the grander principle".
Marty determines to save Shiloh in a scene that is reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn
's well-known resolution to save Jim from slavery: "All right, then, I'll go to hell." Thinking about the falsehoods he has told to save Shiloh, he believes he is bound for hell. He reflects:
Near the conclusion of the novel, Judd refuses to honor his agreement with Marty because there was no witness. When Marty asks his mother what a witness is, she responds: "Somebody who knows the Lord Jesus and don't mind tellin' about it." Despite Judd's refusal to honor the agreement, Marty persistently maintains his part of it. He decides: "I got no choice. All I can do is stick to my side of the deal and see what happens. All in the world I can do." After ultimately ceding Shiloh to Marty, Judd asks: "What you going to do with that dog once he's yours?" Marty's simple reply is: "Love him." Scholar Claudia Mills noted that: "The resolution of the stand-off comes when Marty, in essence, stands witness, in his mother's religious sense of witness, for an ethic of love, crystallized in his love for Shiloh."
s Elizabeth Ward listed Shiloh as one of the best children's books in 1991. She called the book a "heartstopping, but tough-as-steel story of a boy and an abused dog in the hardscrabble hill country of West Virginia". Author Timothy Morris deemed Shiloh to be the "most celebrated dog novel of the nineties". Michele Landsberg
of Entertainment Weekly
called Shiloh a "compelling read" and rated the novel an A. Equating Shiloh to classics like Charlotte's Web
, author Laura Elliott praised the novel's "voice, suspense, and layer of themes".
After Shiloh received the Newbery Award, Jane Langton
wrote in The New York Times Book Review
: "Did Shiloh really deserve the prize? Surely there must have been a book more important than this agreeable but slight story." Langton opined that Shiloh was "a good book, not a great book" and that there must have been few worthy children's books that year. The Sacramento Bee
s Judy Green disagreed, believing that Shiloh was "worthy of its award, which labels it the best fiction for children written last year". Green lauded Naylor for her "excellent portrayal of Marty's introspection and superb storytelling in the area's vernacular".
The Booklist
s Ellen Mandel extolled the novel for its "moving and powerful look" at the virtues and vices of human nature and the murky moral choices in conflicts of everyday life. In her favorable review of Shiloh, Betsy Hearne of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
wrote that "readers will be absorbed by the suspenseful plot, which will leave them with some memorable characterizations as well as several intriguing ethical questions". K.B. Cartwright of The Reading Teacher also praised the novel for providing a "gripping account of family conflict and honesty". In a similarly positive review, Kirkus Reviews
praised the book for being a "gripping account of a mountain boy's love for a dog he's hiding from its owner". Calling it "unusually warm and moving", Heather Vogel Frederick of The Christian Science Monitor
praised the novel for being an "excellent choice as a family read-aloud".
Censors have objected to the profanity in Shiloh. Naylor received an angry letter from the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who were angered by the language in the book. The character Judd had sworn, "dammit". The author replied in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot
that some people in the world "speak crudely" and "you can't put your child in a glass bubble and protect him always". Several West Virginian book reviewers have complained about the dialect in the novel, believing that West Virginians do not speak with a dialect. In one review, a newspaper writer said that when she read the book to her children, she chose not read with the dialect.
. The annual award, bestowed by the children's librarians division of the American Library Association
, is given for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". Shiloh was a dark horse
for the award. Ohio State University
Professor Rudine Sims Bishop, a member of the 1992 Newbery committee, said in an interview that Shiloh was a "sleeper" that surfaced as a serious contender deep in their debate. The book was also selected as an American Library Association Notable Children's Book.
After the January 27, 1992 announcement of Shilohs winning the Newbery Medal, Naylor was flooded with numerous phone calls, requests for interviews, and mail. In an April 1992 interview, Naylor said: "Frankly, to go the bathroom, I have had to take the phone off the hook."
In January 1994, over 60,000 third–sixth graders in the state of Oklahoma
selected from Shiloh 23 nominees as the winner of the Sequoyah Children's Book Award. The Sequoyah Award was presented to Naylor in April 1994 during the yearly Oklahoma Library Association conference. On April 14, 1994, at the annual conference of the Missouri Association of School Librarians, Shiloh received that year's Mark Twain Readers Award. The Mark Twain Award is decided annually through a vote by fourth–eighth graders in the state of Missouri
. On October 29, 1994, Naylor received the William Allen White Children's Book Award
for Shiloh. The award is decided through the tallying of over 55,000 children in the state of Kansas
.
In 1997, The Virginian-Pilot
chose Shiloh as the subject of a "community-wide effort to get people of all ages reading and talking about books". Beginning in October, the newspaper serialized
Shiloh, publishing two chapters every week until the end of November. It also created a book guide about Shiloh and printed 1,000 copies for parents and teachers. A chat room was created for children to direct questions and comments about Shiloh. In 1999, Shiloh was selected as a recommended novel for children ages nine to twelve in the Read Across America
initiative.
In 2000, the Shiloh trilogy placed number seven on the National Education Association
's Children's Top 100 book list. Naylor was delighted that children had given her work such a high ranking. Shiloh is taught in many American elementary school courses.
In the final book of the trilogy, Saving Shiloh, Marty's parents persuade Marty that people who have wronged are worthy of forgiveness. In the midst of several robberies and a murder, the community hastily faults Judd. Willing to grant Judd a second chance, Marty attempts to help him. Meanwhile, Marty and his family must face the intricacies of life such as death, hostility, and sibling rivalry
.
Naylor penned the sequels in response to "the surprising degree of hatred which children show toward Judd Travers". Noting that Judd's life had been molded by the abuse he suffered as a child, she hoped that the novels would enable children to see Judd as a person like Marty who must make difficult moral choices.
Each book in the trilogy was made into a movie: Shiloh
in 1996, Shiloh Season
in 1999, and Saving Shiloh
in 2006.
released Shiloh
, which was directed by Dale Rosenbloom. The first of Naylor's more than 100 juvenile and adult works to be adapted into a movie, it starred Blake Heron
as Marty and Scott Wilson
as Judd Travers. Budgeted at less than $2 million, Shiloh was filmed in 30 days in October 1996 at Topanga, California
.
Rosenbloom's film differed from Naylor's novel in several key aspects. In the novel, Marty's family is poor and economic opportunities are limited. The family's four-room homestead is ancient and has not seen remodeling in decades. In the film, the family is wealthy and there are numerous economic opportunities. The family's two-story house is a "stunning showplace of hardwoods, elegant color schemes, and tasteful appointments". Marty makes money very quickly by doing various chores. By transforming Marty's family from being poor to being well off, Rosenbloom makes the conflict between Marty and Judd an emotional, instead of an economic one. In the novel, Marty and his family hunt animals, while in the film, his father does not hunt. Author Timothy Morris states that "[t]he force of the film's ideology is to blur all distinctions between humans and animals". Judd is transformed from a native in the novel into an interloper in the film who holds the contrarian view that humans and animals are different, that "[a]nimals were put here for us. They ain' got no other purpose or feelin's."
Instead of being about Marty's love for Shiloh, most of the novel occurs in Marty's thoughts such as when he ponders about telling falsehoods to his parents. Because the book was considered "very internal" by the major film studios, director Dale Rosenbloom labored over making the film more external. Rosenbloom added new characters and scenes to the story and faxed each change to the novel's author. Naylor was neither fearful of Rosenbloom's changes nor unhesitant at suggesting changes. After the film was released, Naylor said that Rosenbloom "did a very good job", and Rosenbloom said, "We did do right by the book and her ... She lives by her code and if you honor it, she appreciates it." By June 1997, Naylor had seen the film six times. In an interview that month, she noted that she was always struck by the hush of the theater and by how the film entrances everyone, even the children.
Despite an underwhelming performance in the movie theaters, the film received high video sales. Ranking Shiloh as one of his top 10 selections, Roger Ebert
praised the film for being a "remarkably mature and complex story about a boy who loves a dog and cannot bear to see it mistreated", depicting "the real world with all of its terrors and responsibilities". Shiloh was honored with "best film" at the Chicago International Film Festival
.
in 1992. Performed by Peter MacNicol
, the three-hour-long audiobook is unabridged. Author John Wynne praised MacNicol's delivery, writing that he "does character voices well—both male and female—and creates a folksy atmosphere appropriate to the material".
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
-winning children's novel
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is an American author best known for her children and young adult fiction books. Naylor is best known for her children's-novel trilogy Shiloh , Shiloh Season and Saving Shiloh, all made into movies...
published in 1991
1991 in literature
The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
. The 65th book by Naylor, it is the first in a trilogy about a young boy and the title character, an abused dog. Naylor decided to write Shiloh after an emotionally taxing experience in West Virginia where she encountered an abused dog.
Narrator and protagonist Marty Preston lives in the hills of Friendly, West Virginia
Friendly, West Virginia
Friendly is a town in Tyler County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 159 at the 2000 census. The town was likely named for Friend Cochrane Williamson, the grandson of Thomas Williamson, an early settler on the townsite...
. After finding an abused beagle
Beagle
The Beagle is a breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound, but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears. Beagles are scent hounds, developed primarily for tracking hare, rabbit, and other game...
owned by his brutal neighbor Judd Travers, Marty defies his society's standards of not meddling with each others' business. Marty resolves to steal and hide the dog, naming him Shiloh and fabricating a web of lies to keep his secret. After his theft is discovered, Marty discovers Judd shooting a deer out of season and blackmails him into selling Shiloh to him. Because he lacks the money to buy Shiloh, Marty resolutely works for Judd doing numerous chores.
Primarily a Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
and adventure novel
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
, the novel depicts the emotional tribulations and maturing of an 11-year-old boy. According to scholars, the novel's main themes are ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
, consequentialism
Consequentialism
Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct...
, religion and morality, and animal–human relationships. Marty learns that morality is confounding and must choose between two unpalatable choices: rescuing the abused Shiloh through stealing and lying and allowing Judd to keep abusing Shiloh.
Reviewers generally gave positive reviews of the book and were impressed by the novel's suspense and vernacular language. In addition to the Newbery Medal, Shiloh has received several state awards voted upon by children, including the Sequoyah Children's Book Award, the Mark Twain Readers Award, and the William Allen White Children's Book Award
William Allen White Children's Book Award
The William Allen White Children's Book Award is an annual book award chosen by Kansas students. It was established by Ruth Garver Gagliardo in 1952, in memory of William Allen White and is administered by Emporia State University. It was the first statewide readers' choice book award in the United...
. In 1996, the book was adapted into a movie
Shiloh (film)
Shiloh is a Family/Drama film produced and directed by Dale Rosenbloom in 1996. It was shown at the Heartland Film Festival in 1996, but its general release came on April 27, 1997. The original book by the same name was written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor...
. The novel spawned two sequels, Shiloh Season and Saving Shiloh, published in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Shiloh is taught in many American elementary school courses in the United States.
Background and publishing
Born in 1933 in Anderson, IndianaAnderson, Indiana
Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison county. Anderson is the headquarters of the Church of God and home of Anderson University, which is...
, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was raised in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in the 1930s during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. During her childhood, she was hardly given any toys. Instead, with her parents reading to her every night, books formed a major part of her childhood—"the happiest part". Her parents read a variety of literature to her, including Bible stories, Wind in the Willows, and Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
's novels, until she was 14. After she became a parent, she read to her children in the mornings because of their evening activities. Having published over 100 books, Naylor wrote a short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
for a church magazine when she was 16 years old and a book in her early 30s. When she wrote and published Shiloh, her 65th novel, she was living in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
with her husband Rex, a speech pathologist whom she married in May 1960. She has two adult sons and four grandchildren.
Naylor writes books for children, teens, and adults. Writing sporadically, Naylor typically takes several years to finish a book. With about 10 notebooks next to her workspace, she writes down story ideas and character traits when she thinks of them. She considered Shiloh to be a deviation from the norm because she finished the first draft in merely eight weeks.
Edited by Jon Landman, Shiloh was published by Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books was a publishing house and adult publisher created by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. in 1959. He recruited editor Jean E. Karl personally, to come and establish a Children's Book Department in 1961....
on September 30, 1991.
Plot summary
The novel is set in the small town of Friendly, West VirginiaFriendly, West Virginia
Friendly is a town in Tyler County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 159 at the 2000 census. The town was likely named for Friend Cochrane Williamson, the grandson of Thomas Williamson, an early settler on the townsite...
, where an eleven-year-old boy named Marty Preston finds a stray beagle
Beagle
The Beagle is a breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound, but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears. Beagles are scent hounds, developed primarily for tracking hare, rabbit, and other game...
wandering in the hills near his house. The dog follows him home, and Marty names him Shiloh, a tribute to a neighborhood schoolhouse. Shiloh's real owner is Judd Travers, who owns several hunting dog
Hunting dog
A hunting dog refers to any dog who assists humans in hunting. There are several types of hunting dogs developed for various tasks. The major categories of hunting dogs include hounds, terriers, dachshunds, cur type dogs, and gun dogs...
s. Fearing for the dog's safety because Judd drinks and treats his hunting dogs poorly, Marty does not want to return Shiloh. His father insists Shiloh be returned to his owner and they take the dog to Judd Travers.
Shiloh returns to Marty who hides him from his family. Concealing Shiloh in the woods in a wire pen he builds, Marty smuggles some of his dinner to the dog each evening. After his mother discovers Marty feeding the dog, he persuades her not to reveal the secret. That night, Shiloh is attacked by a German Shepherd Dog
German Shepherd Dog
The German Shepherd Dog , also known as an Alsatian or just the German Shepherd, is a breed of large-sized dog that originated in Germany. The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of dog, with its origin dating to 1899. As part of the Herding Group, the German Shepherd is a working dog...
while in his make-shift cage and his family discovers Marty has been lying and hiding the dog. After taking the dog to the town doctor, the family must return Shiloh to his rightful owner.
Before doing so, Marty travels up to Travers' house to try to convince Travers to allow him to keep Shiloh. Judd does not see Marty approaching, and shoots a doe out of season, which would mean a stiff fine Judd cannot afford. Marty lets Judd know he knows, and attempts to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
him out of Shiloh. Judd and Marty eventually negotiate a deal in which Marty will earn Shiloh for 40 dollars, paid with 20 hours of working for Judd. At the end of the first week, Judd says that he will not keep his end of the deal because the evidence of the dead doe has with the passage of time disappeared. Second, the contract that Marty had him sign is worthless in the state of West Virginia without the signature of a witness. Despite Judd's pointed disapproval of his work, Marty continues to work for him. They begin discussing dogs and Judd's father who began physically abusing Judd when he was four years old. In the end, Judd warms to Marty, relents, and lets him keep Shiloh.
Autobiographical elements
In a 1992 interview about Shiloh, Naylor said: "Like a patchwork quilt, a novel is made up of things that have happened to me and things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings." Naylor's characters are frequently based on herself and her two sons. She penned the novel following an excursion with her husband, Rex, to visit their friends, Frank and Trudy Madden, in West Virgina. Naylor and Rex were strolling along a river when they discovered a dog in the grass following them. Dejected and frightened, the dog was "the saddest, most mistreated-looking beagle I'd ever seen", Naylor later said. Because the dog frequently shuddered and slunk forward on her belly, Naylor suspected she had been abused. On a whim, Naylor whistled and the dog rushed forward, lapping Naylor's face. Tailing them until they reached the Maddens' house, the beagle remained under a tree, her paws cushioning her head during the drizzly afternoon. Naylor cried during her and her husband's trip home that night.Rex asked her if she would have a "nervous breakdown" or if she would "do something about it". That "something" referred to writing a book and she did. She believed that someone had abused the dog and was confronted by a series of questions:
The Maddens resided near Shiloh, West Virginia
Shiloh, Tyler County, West Virginia
Shiloh is an unincorporated community on Middle Island Creek in Tyler County, West Virginia. Shiloh had its own post office in operation here in the early 20th century.-History:...
, where Naylor found the abused dog in 1989, so she decided to name the book's dog Shiloh. Because the Maddens' post office address is in Friendly, West Virginia
Friendly, West Virginia
Friendly is a town in Tyler County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 159 at the 2000 census. The town was likely named for Friend Cochrane Williamson, the grandson of Thomas Williamson, an early settler on the townsite...
, Naylor chose the town as her book's setting.
Trudy Madden, who with her husband adopted the abused dog Naylor saw, said in a 1997 interview that Naylor's description of Shiloh, West Virginia, was precise. By following the directions in Shiloh and its sequels, the town's houses, mill, and schoolhouse could be located easily.
Style
Shiloh is told in the first personFirst-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
in main character Marty Preston's voice. The prose has perceptible grammatical errors and a bucolic tone. Arlene Perly Rae
Arlene Perly Rae
Arlene Perly Rae is a Canadian journalist, author and arts patron. She is married to Canadian politician Bob Rae.- Background :Educated at the University of Toronto, Perly Rae was a longtime reviewer of children's literature for the Toronto Star...
of Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
wrote that the novel is written in the "uncomplicated style" for which Naylor is distinguished. Jane Langton
Jane Langton
Jane Gillson Langton is an American mystery writer and author of children's literature.-Biography:Langton was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied astronomy at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1944. She received an M.A. in art history from...
of The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
stated that the novel was written in a "comfortable, down-home style". Writing that the main story in Shiloh is Marty's struggle in his mind with morality, Langston noted that it is "presented simply, in a way any third- or fourth-grade reader can understand".
Scholar Leona W. Fisher wrote in Children's Literature Association Quarterly
Children's Literature Association Quarterly
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly is a quarterly academic journal established in 1975 and an official publication of the Children's Literature Association. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal promotes a scholarly approach to the study of children’s...
that the novel employs a seldom used yet ingenious literary technique. The story is told with "the sustained internal monologue presented almost exclusively in the present tense". The mores of his society and the actions of adults are strained through Marty's mind concurrently with his emotional agony and ethical judgments. The dialogue of the other characters tempers but does not counteract the "exclusivity of his linguistic point of view" because Marty is the sole narrator.
Shiloh has a "compacted time-frame, bounded by the past-tense opening and closing". Fisher noted that because the novel's events are confined to several weeks in the summer, there is no need for a "panoramic sweep" of the actions. The reader can concentrate solely on Marty's ethical crisis. Conveying the mood of the novel is also mostly confined to Marty's thoughts and current action. Naylor uses the past-perfect verb "had" on several occasions to depict the tones of the scenes. This usage conveys turning-points in the story, transferring the reader from the "immediate tension" of the present to a growing cognizance.
Scholar Kathie Cerra praised the novel for its "vivid sensory detail", which enables readers to experience Marty's "inner life of thought and feeling". In Marty's captivating first-person narrative, he shows how he feels when he tells falsities to his parents and when he embraces the wriggling Shiloh.
Scholars Alethea Helbig and Agnes Perkins wrote that the "Appalachian setting is well evoked, in both its beauty and its code of ethics that Marty must defy to save the dog". Reviewer Ellen Mandel of Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
wrote that the "West Virginia dialect richly seasons the true-to-life dialogue". Kenneth E. Kowen of School Library Journal
School Library Journal
The School Library Journal is a monthly magazine with articles and reviews for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with a focus on technology and multimedia. Reviews are included for preschool to 4th grade,...
perceived an incongruity in Naylor's depiction of Marty's family. He noted that Marty's father is a postman, one of the best paid jobs in suburban settings. In the novel, however, the family is poverty-stricken.
Shiloh is a Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
and adventure novel
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
. Salem Press
Salem Press
Salem Press is a publisher of reference works on literature, history and biography, the social sciences, and science. Salem Press publishes comprehensive, multivolume sets under its Salem Press imprint, and smaller, condensed titles under its Magill’s Choice imprint.Products include traditional...
's Carol Ann Gearhart has characterized the novel as domestic realism
Domestic realism
Domestic realism normally refers to the genre of nineteenth-century novels popular with women readers. This body of writing is also known as "sentimental fiction" or "woman's fiction"...
.
Marty undergoes a physical and emotional transformation in his quest to save Shiloh. After confronting an abusive adult, he mentally grows, concluding: "I saved Shiloh and opened my eyes some. Now that ain't bad for eleven."
Abuse and love
Physically abused as a child, Judd wants to keep Shiloh because he does not comprehend why people are so interested in rescuing the abused dog. No one cared to rescue Judd when he was harmed throughout his youth. Despite Judd's growing into a harsh man, he preserves a glimmer of empathy.Judds' inability to love and cherish Shiloh is borne of the physical abuse he suffered as a child. Conversely, Marty's love of Shiloh is innate because of the love his family nurtured in him.
Animal–human relationships
Author Timothy Morris wrote that the plot and themes in Shiloh had many parallels to the 1940 novel Lassie Come-Home by Eric KnightEric Knight
Eric Knight was an author who is mainly notable for creating the fictional collie Lassie.Born on 10 April 1897, in Menston in Yorkshire, England, Eric Mowbray Knight was the third of four sons born to Frederic Harrison and Marion Hilda Knight, both Quakers...
. In both novels, boys fall in love with dogs owned by others. The dogs repeatedly return to the children in "mirror imag[e] scenes", while the ethical fathers try to convince them not to betray their morals and fall for the dogs.
Shiloh's faithfulness to Marty is portrayed in "affective human terms". In the secluded, bucolic West Virginia, Shiloh becomes the masculine friend Marty did not have. The beagle adopts the persona of the brother Marty never had. Marty doggedly believes that Shiloh and other animals are creatures with feelings. Attune with Marty's emotions, the beagle is considered by Marty to be a confidante. On the other hand, in pastoral West Virginia, some adults consider animals to bring only economic benefits to humans. Morris stated that children like Marty defy their rural culture and advance to an upper-class mindset.
Marty's parents subscribe to the belief that because Shiloh is Judd's property, they should not be concerned with how Judd treats Shiloh. They tell Marty: "You've got to go by the law. The law says that a man that pays money for a dog owns that dog." At odds with this philosophy, Marty strongly believes that love—not money—should determine ownership.
Ethics
In Shiloh, Naylor does not impart an explicit meaning of "honesty" to her juvenile readers. Instead, she conveys how "confusing and unanswerable" morality is using main character Marty's ethical predicaments and plot twistPlot twist
A plot twist is a change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of a film, television series, video game, novel, comic or other fictional work. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation...
s. To harbor Shiloh from the antagonist Judd and his principled parents, Marty must steal food and tell falsehoods. His dishonest actions serve as a contrast to his conscientious persona and his benevolent rescuing of the dog. Every night, Marty prays, "Jesus ... which do you want me to do? Be one hundred percent honest and carry that dog back to Judd so that one of your creatures can be kicked and starved all over again, or keep him here and fatten him up to glorify your creation?"
According to Judith B. Rosenfeld of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Naylor makes the statement that children raised in healthy families make ethical choices and ultimately thrive. In a 1994 interview Naylor said: Naylor believes that there is much "gray area between right and wrong". Instead of following the straightforward correct path, Marty is forced to select between two unpalatable choices. Reviewer Matt Berman of The Times-Picayune believed that the book's main moral is that "nothing is as simple as it seems". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
Michele Landsberg
Michele Landsberg
Michele Landsberg, OC is an award-winning Canadian writer, social activist and feminist who wrote a column for the Toronto Star newspaper.-Life and career:...
praised the novel, writing that Shiloh is a "strongly persuasive story of moral growth, told without a hint of moralizing and with acute insight into a preadolescent's inner life".
In the children's literature journal The ALAN Review published by The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents
ALAN, The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents is an independent assembly of NCTE. Founded in November 1973, ALAN is made up of teachers, authors, librarians, publishers, teacher-educators and their students, and others who are particularly interested in the area of young adult literature...
, Edgar H. Thompson, Connie B. Blevins, and Allison Fitzgerald argued that protagonist Marty "consistently behaves" at levels 5 and 6 of Kohlberg's stages of development. For instance, on his walk to Judd's house, he wonders: "Easy as pie for Judd Travers to put a bullet hole in my head, say he didn't see me." Despite his fears, Marty continues walking to Judd's house, persistent on protecting Shiloh despite potential bodily harm and even death to himself. The authors brooded over whether an 11 year old could attain such an elevated level despite most adults' never being able to do so. Ultimately noting that the Newbery Committee and thousands of readers consider Marty to be realistic, they concluded that Marty is a positive role model for children to strive to be.
Consequentialism
In her essay "The Structure of the Moral Dilemma in Shiloh" for Children's LiteratureChildren's Literature (journal)
Children’s Literature is an academic journal and annual publication of the Modern Language Association and the Children’s Literature Association Division on Children's Literature. The journal was founded in 1972 by Francelia Butler and promotes a scholarly approach to the study of children’s...
, Claudia Mills wrote that Shiloh deals with "consequentialism
Consequentialism
Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct...
pitted against deontological
Deontological ethics
Deontological ethics or deontology is the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. It is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation" or "rule" -based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty"...
respect for moral duty". Taught from his youth to be respectful to others and worship God, Marty is confounded by the injustice of Shiloh's being abused. He seeks to justify his unethical actions by thinking that "[a] lie don't seem a lie anymore when it's meant to save a dog." Consequentionalists base the worthiness of a person's act on its result. Marty's act of saving Shiloh is worse for Shiloh's well-being. After Shiloh is concealed in the woods, a German shepherd attacks the beagle, causing to become permanently lame. Marty laments: "Worst of all, I'd brought Shiloh here to keep him from being hurt, and what that German shepherd done to him was probably worse than anything Judd Travers would have brought himself to do, short of shootin' him, anyways."
Mills noted that consequentialism does not merely expect that the consequences to one entity is determined. It requires a review of the consequences to all. When Judd's out-of-season shooting of a deer is observed by Marty, Marty uses the incident to blackmail him to sell Shiloh to him. However, this places deer in the future in danger of Judd's hunting. Marty sadly reflects: "By lettin' him get away with this, I'm putting other deer in danger. He kill this one out of season, he'll figure maybe he can kill some more. To save Shiloh, I'm making it harder for deer". In essence, he selects the "domestic love over the grander principle".
Religion and morality
Religion plays an influential role in Marty's moral decisions. After Marty takes a forbidden bite from his sister Dara Lynn's chocolate Easter rabbit and refuses to own up, his mother is disappointed. She tells him: "Dara Lynn don't know who ate the ear off her candy rabbit and I don't know who did it, but Jesus knows. And right this minute Jesus is looking down with the saddest eyes on the person who ate that chocolate." Marty's very religious mother teaches him that people should not sin or they will be "separated forever from God's love."Marty determines to save Shiloh in a scene that is reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic Mark Twain novel.Huckleberry Finn may also refer to:*Huckleberry Finn , a fictional character in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer...
's well-known resolution to save Jim from slavery: "All right, then, I'll go to hell." Thinking about the falsehoods he has told to save Shiloh, he believes he is bound for hell. He reflects:
Near the conclusion of the novel, Judd refuses to honor his agreement with Marty because there was no witness. When Marty asks his mother what a witness is, she responds: "Somebody who knows the Lord Jesus and don't mind tellin' about it." Despite Judd's refusal to honor the agreement, Marty persistently maintains his part of it. He decides: "I got no choice. All I can do is stick to my side of the deal and see what happens. All in the world I can do." After ultimately ceding Shiloh to Marty, Judd asks: "What you going to do with that dog once he's yours?" Marty's simple reply is: "Love him." Scholar Claudia Mills noted that: "The resolution of the stand-off comes when Marty, in essence, stands witness, in his mother's religious sense of witness, for an ethic of love, crystallized in his love for Shiloh."
Reception
The News & ObserverThe News & Observer
The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of the U.S. State of North Carolina. The N&O, as it is popularly called, is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill. The paper also has substantial readership in most of the state east of...
s Elizabeth Ward listed Shiloh as one of the best children's books in 1991. She called the book a "heartstopping, but tough-as-steel story of a boy and an abused dog in the hardscrabble hill country of West Virginia". Author Timothy Morris deemed Shiloh to be the "most celebrated dog novel of the nineties". Michele Landsberg
Michele Landsberg
Michele Landsberg, OC is an award-winning Canadian writer, social activist and feminist who wrote a column for the Toronto Star newspaper.-Life and career:...
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called Shiloh a "compelling read" and rated the novel an A. Equating Shiloh to classics like Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web is an award-winning children's novel by acclaimed American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams.The novel tells the story...
, author Laura Elliott praised the novel's "voice, suspense, and layer of themes".
After Shiloh received the Newbery Award, Jane Langton
Jane Langton
Jane Gillson Langton is an American mystery writer and author of children's literature.-Biography:Langton was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied astronomy at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1944. She received an M.A. in art history from...
wrote in The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
: "Did Shiloh really deserve the prize? Surely there must have been a book more important than this agreeable but slight story." Langton opined that Shiloh was "a good book, not a great book" and that there must have been few worthy children's books that year. The Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its creation in 1857, the Bee has become Sacramento's largest newspaper, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 25th largest paper in the U.S...
s Judy Green disagreed, believing that Shiloh was "worthy of its award, which labels it the best fiction for children written last year". Green lauded Naylor for her "excellent portrayal of Marty's introspection and superb storytelling in the area's vernacular".
The Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
s Ellen Mandel extolled the novel for its "moving and powerful look" at the virtues and vices of human nature and the murky moral choices in conflicts of everyday life. In her favorable review of Shiloh, Betsy Hearne of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books is an academic journal established in 1945 by Frances E. Henne at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The publication is dedicated to reviewing the latest in children's literature...
wrote that "readers will be absorbed by the suspenseful plot, which will leave them with some memorable characterizations as well as several intriguing ethical questions". K.B. Cartwright of The Reading Teacher also praised the novel for providing a "gripping account of family conflict and honesty". In a similarly positive review, Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
praised the book for being a "gripping account of a mountain boy's love for a dog he's hiding from its owner". Calling it "unusually warm and moving", Heather Vogel Frederick of The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
praised the novel for being an "excellent choice as a family read-aloud".
Censors have objected to the profanity in Shiloh. Naylor received an angry letter from the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who were angered by the language in the book. The character Judd had sworn, "dammit". The author replied in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot is a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, southeastern Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and northeastern North Carolina. The flagship property of Landmark Media Enterprises, The Pilot is Virginia's largest daily...
that some people in the world "speak crudely" and "you can't put your child in a glass bubble and protect him always". Several West Virginian book reviewers have complained about the dialect in the novel, believing that West Virginians do not speak with a dialect. In one review, a newspaper writer said that when she read the book to her children, she chose not read with the dialect.
Honors
In 1992, Shiloh received the John Newbery MedalNewbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
. The annual award, bestowed by the children's librarians division of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
, is given for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". Shiloh was a dark horse
Dark horse
Dark horse is a term used to describe a little-known person or thing that emerges to prominence, especially in a competition of some sort.-Origin:The term began as horse racing parlance...
for the award. Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
Professor Rudine Sims Bishop, a member of the 1992 Newbery committee, said in an interview that Shiloh was a "sleeper" that surfaced as a serious contender deep in their debate. The book was also selected as an American Library Association Notable Children's Book.
After the January 27, 1992 announcement of Shilohs winning the Newbery Medal, Naylor was flooded with numerous phone calls, requests for interviews, and mail. In an April 1992 interview, Naylor said: "Frankly, to go the bathroom, I have had to take the phone off the hook."
In January 1994, over 60,000 third–sixth graders in the state of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
selected from Shiloh 23 nominees as the winner of the Sequoyah Children's Book Award. The Sequoyah Award was presented to Naylor in April 1994 during the yearly Oklahoma Library Association conference. On April 14, 1994, at the annual conference of the Missouri Association of School Librarians, Shiloh received that year's Mark Twain Readers Award. The Mark Twain Award is decided annually through a vote by fourth–eighth graders in the state of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. On October 29, 1994, Naylor received the William Allen White Children's Book Award
William Allen White Children's Book Award
The William Allen White Children's Book Award is an annual book award chosen by Kansas students. It was established by Ruth Garver Gagliardo in 1952, in memory of William Allen White and is administered by Emporia State University. It was the first statewide readers' choice book award in the United...
for Shiloh. The award is decided through the tallying of over 55,000 children in the state of Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
.
In 1997, The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot is a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, southeastern Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and northeastern North Carolina. The flagship property of Landmark Media Enterprises, The Pilot is Virginia's largest daily...
chose Shiloh as the subject of a "community-wide effort to get people of all ages reading and talking about books". Beginning in October, the newspaper serialized
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
Shiloh, publishing two chapters every week until the end of November. It also created a book guide about Shiloh and printed 1,000 copies for parents and teachers. A chat room was created for children to direct questions and comments about Shiloh. In 1999, Shiloh was selected as a recommended novel for children ages nine to twelve in the Read Across America
Read Across America
Read Across America is an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.One part of the project is National Read Across America Day, an observance in the United States held on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.-External links:...
initiative.
In 2000, the Shiloh trilogy placed number seven on the National Education Association
National Education Association
The National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
's Children's Top 100 book list. Naylor was delighted that children had given her work such a high ranking. Shiloh is taught in many American elementary school courses.
Sequels
Shiloh has two sequels, Shiloh Season and Saving Shiloh, published in 1996 and 1997, respectively. In Shiloh Season, Naylor renews the strife by restoring Judd's hostility and aggravating it with a bout of drinking issues. Marty fears Judd will take back Shiloh and be faithless to the deal they made. Whereas in Shiloh Marty confronts the confusing and ambiguous concept of morality, in Shiloh Season he must face the notion of wickedness.In the final book of the trilogy, Saving Shiloh, Marty's parents persuade Marty that people who have wronged are worthy of forgiveness. In the midst of several robberies and a murder, the community hastily faults Judd. Willing to grant Judd a second chance, Marty attempts to help him. Meanwhile, Marty and his family must face the intricacies of life such as death, hostility, and sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among children, blood-related or not.Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality,...
.
Naylor penned the sequels in response to "the surprising degree of hatred which children show toward Judd Travers". Noting that Judd's life had been molded by the abuse he suffered as a child, she hoped that the novels would enable children to see Judd as a person like Marty who must make difficult moral choices.
Each book in the trilogy was made into a movie: Shiloh
Shiloh (film)
Shiloh is a Family/Drama film produced and directed by Dale Rosenbloom in 1996. It was shown at the Heartland Film Festival in 1996, but its general release came on April 27, 1997. The original book by the same name was written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor...
in 1996, Shiloh Season
Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season
Shiloh Season is a 1999 family/drama film about a boy trying to defend his dog from a man who is constantly under the influence. It is a sequel to the 1996 Shiloh.-Plot:...
in 1999, and Saving Shiloh
Saving Shiloh (film)
Saving Shiloh is a family movie produced in 2006, based on the book of the same name written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It is the third and final film in the trilogy whose other members are Shiloh and Shiloh Season. The film is rated PG for some thematic elements and peril.-Plot: The movie begins...
in 2006.
Film
In 1996 Warner Bros. PicturesWarner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
released Shiloh
Shiloh (film)
Shiloh is a Family/Drama film produced and directed by Dale Rosenbloom in 1996. It was shown at the Heartland Film Festival in 1996, but its general release came on April 27, 1997. The original book by the same name was written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor...
, which was directed by Dale Rosenbloom. The first of Naylor's more than 100 juvenile and adult works to be adapted into a movie, it starred Blake Heron
Blake Heron
Blake Heron is an American screen actor. He starred as Marty Preston in the 1996 film Shiloh.-Biography:Heron was born in Sherman Oaks, California...
as Marty and Scott Wilson
Scott Wilson (actor)
Scott Wilson is an American actor.-Movies:Wilson appeared in such films as In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Gypsy Moths, The Great Gatsby, The Right Stuff, A Year of the Quiet Sun, Malone, Dead Man Walking, The Grass Harp, Junebug, The Host, Monster, Young Guns II, Pearl Harbor, and...
as Judd Travers. Budgeted at less than $2 million, Shiloh was filmed in 30 days in October 1996 at Topanga, California
Topanga, California
Topanga is a census-designated place in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. It is located in the Santa Monica Mountains. Occupying Topanga Canyon, it is often referred to by that name. Topanga is bounded on three sides by State Park or conservancy lands, and on the south by the Pacific...
.
Rosenbloom's film differed from Naylor's novel in several key aspects. In the novel, Marty's family is poor and economic opportunities are limited. The family's four-room homestead is ancient and has not seen remodeling in decades. In the film, the family is wealthy and there are numerous economic opportunities. The family's two-story house is a "stunning showplace of hardwoods, elegant color schemes, and tasteful appointments". Marty makes money very quickly by doing various chores. By transforming Marty's family from being poor to being well off, Rosenbloom makes the conflict between Marty and Judd an emotional, instead of an economic one. In the novel, Marty and his family hunt animals, while in the film, his father does not hunt. Author Timothy Morris states that "[t]he force of the film's ideology is to blur all distinctions between humans and animals". Judd is transformed from a native in the novel into an interloper in the film who holds the contrarian view that humans and animals are different, that "[a]nimals were put here for us. They ain' got no other purpose or feelin's."
Instead of being about Marty's love for Shiloh, most of the novel occurs in Marty's thoughts such as when he ponders about telling falsehoods to his parents. Because the book was considered "very internal" by the major film studios, director Dale Rosenbloom labored over making the film more external. Rosenbloom added new characters and scenes to the story and faxed each change to the novel's author. Naylor was neither fearful of Rosenbloom's changes nor unhesitant at suggesting changes. After the film was released, Naylor said that Rosenbloom "did a very good job", and Rosenbloom said, "We did do right by the book and her ... She lives by her code and if you honor it, she appreciates it." By June 1997, Naylor had seen the film six times. In an interview that month, she noted that she was always struck by the hush of the theater and by how the film entrances everyone, even the children.
Despite an underwhelming performance in the movie theaters, the film received high video sales. Ranking Shiloh as one of his top 10 selections, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
praised the film for being a "remarkably mature and complex story about a boy who loves a dog and cannot bear to see it mistreated", depicting "the real world with all of its terrors and responsibilities". Shiloh was honored with "best film" at the Chicago International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
.
Audiobook
The audiobook version of Shiloh was released by Bantam BooksBantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
in 1992. Performed by Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol is an American actor. He may be best known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, Thomas Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It and David Langley in Bean...
, the three-hour-long audiobook is unabridged. Author John Wynne praised MacNicol's delivery, writing that he "does character voices well—both male and female—and creates a folksy atmosphere appropriate to the material".
External links
- Study Guide for Shiloh from McGraw-HillMcGraw-HillThe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
- Selected excerpts from the book
- Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's 1992 Newbery Acceptance Speech