For many allergy-filled years in my youth, I filled the pet-less void with books about animals. If you or the pet lovers in your family are looking for some new reading material, you might like some of the same books I did.
James Herriot’s Dog Stories and Cat Stories. You may have heard of James Herriot, the country vet from England who wrote All Creatures Great And Small. These collections feature Herriot’s favorite dog and cat stories, and give readers insight into animal care from the 1930s. You also see a little bit about animal psychology in how the animals react to the good doctor. My favorite stories have stayed with me over the years – this is a book I can read over and over.
Island of the Blue Dolphins is a Newbury Award winner from Scott O’Dell. A young girl is left behind when her entire tribe must evacuate their island home. She is left alone to try and survive. And she does.
Julie of the Wolves is another survival tale. Julie is an Eskimo girl who runs away from her cruel young husband in an attempt to reach her pen pal in San Francisco. On the Alaskan tundra, she encounters and is accepted by a pack of wolves. Jean Craighead George wrote two other books in the series, continuing Julie’s adventures.
Wilson Rawls’ Where the Red Fern Grows is a story of a boy growing up in the Ozarks. He raises and trains a pair of coonhound pups to hunt and “tree” raccoons. And that description does nothing to convey how wonderful this book is. As a child, I read this book over and over. SPOILER: Sad ending. You can probably guess what it is.
For a while, every cat lover I knew got a copy of Tad Williams’ Tailchaser’s Song as a gift. This one is an epic-fantasy quest sort of tale, where the hero goes in search of a missing friend but becomes entangled in a much larger plot. The characters here are cats, and whether or not you are a feline fan, you’ll like the rich details of cat society.
I actually didn’t read Richard Adams’ Watership Down until I was an adult, but I still loved it. Another great adventure story, this time starring bunnies. After you read this one, check out the cartoon version and see how they match up.
Brian Jacques’ Redwall series is another good one for humanesque animals as adventuring heroes. I made it through the first four or five books before the series got away from me, but if you or your young readers fall in love with the universe of the Redwall animals, they can keep on reading for quite some time!
The more I think about it, the more animal-centric books I can think of… but these top my list of favorites! Let me know if you have any favorites that I missed!