The Ransom of Red Chief

by O. Henry

Book Overview

O. Henry [RL 6 IL 7-9] Bandits kidnap a young boy and get more than they can handle. Theme: unexpected results of crime. 38 pages. Tale Blazers. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871917769
• ISBN13: 9780871917768
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Creative Education
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Age Range: 10 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 12

Customer Reviews

Just a playful little kid....Right?

Red Chief, the red haired, freckle faced, 7 year old, is really a good kid. So he sets cats on fire and shoots arrows through the postman's hat. So he through Becky in the lake, he just wanted to get her clean. But why does everyone in Summit, Alambama (the flattest little town in the south)run when he comes out to play? And what happens when he is kidnapped by the two slick, charming, and unusually kind con-men Sam and Bill Driscoll? Red Chief (or Johnny Dorset by true name) adores them both, which is more than is to be said about their feelings toward him. Bill gets hit by Hurricane Red Chief the hardest. But what happens when they try to collect the ransom leaves them both on the short side of "The Ransom of Red Chief"!!!!

Misunderstood?

Red Chief, the red haired, freckle faced, 7 year old, is really a good kid. So he sets cats on fire and shoots arrows through the postman's hat. So he through Becky in the lake, he just wanted to get her clean. But why does everyone in Summit, Alambama (the flattest little town in the south) run when he comes out to play? And what happens when he is kidnapped by the two slick, charming, and unusually kind con-men Sam and Bill Driscoll? Red Chief (or Johnny Dorset by true name) adores them both, which is more than is to be said about their feelings toward him. Bill gets hit by Hurricane Red Chief the hardest. But what happens when they try to collect the ransom leaves them both on the short side of "The Ransom of Red Chief"!!!!

This book was so funny. I absolutely loved it.

I had to read this last year for my English class, and thought that it was going to be just another lame story like all the other "classics" the public schools make us read. But when I got into it I was pleasently surprized. I couldn't stop laughing. The story is about two men who kidnap the local millionare's heir. But get more than they bargoned for. Instead of a well behaved rich kid they get a wild, red-haired hellion, that insists on playing Indians, and sacres one of his kidnappers so much that they finnally take him back to his father, thinking that they'll just get rid of him then and there. Well, instead of a reward the kid's father says that if they pay him a hundred or so dollars he'll keep his son back for a while and he won't tell the neighbors that they brought him back until nightfall. What happens next will surprize you and make you laugh. It was so much fun to read, I would suggest it to anyone that wants to read something really funny, it'll just make your day.