Animal Stories: Fantasy

If your dog put on trousers and brought you the morning paper and a cup of coffee, you probably wouldn't accept them quietly and start reading the sports page. While most characters in literature who encounter talking animals aren't that nonchalant about it, they seem a lot more accepting of bizarre phenomena than most real people would be. Is it just because they're characters in books? or is it because animals actually have quite a bit to tell us about human nature and the realities of the world we occupy?

There are real-life precedents for talking animals—parrots can speak, crows can acquire human vocabularies, and Balaam's donkey carried on a conversation with the reluctant prophet. Granted, birds with the vocal capacity for imitative speech and supernaturally gifted pack animals aren't really in the same league, but you get the idea. Just because most animals don't talk doesn't mean none of them can.

We're not suggesting Narnia is a real place, or rabbits actually have detailed mythologies, at least not in the sense most people would use words like "real" and "actual." But there are books about Aslan, and there are books about Bigwig and Fiver, Matthias the Mouse, and Mr. Toad, and in that sense those places and characters are real and actual. More importantly, what they tell us about life itself (through their stories, not over afternoon tea) is often true and real and actual.

Basically, stories about animals who apparel themselves in anything other than their own skin and fur, animals that fight with swords instead of claws and teeth, animals who bake their food rather than eating it raw or off the ground, animals that speak (either to humans or each other)—any story we carry of this kind will be found here. While animal fantasy shouldn't displace all other reading, it's important to remember that, in the end, there's very little meaningful difference between a character like Tom Sawyer and one like Abel the Mouse.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

 

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Abel's Island
by William Steig
from Square Fish Publishing
Animal Fantasy for 3rd-5th grade
1977 Newbery Honor Book
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.99
Ace, the Very Important Pig
by Dick King-Smith
from Yearling
for 3rd-5th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$6.99
Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #13
by Thornton W. Burgess
Revised ed. from Dover Publications
for 3rd-6th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$4.00
Adventures of Peter Cottontail
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #7
by Thornton W. Burgess
Reprint from Dover Publications
for 3rd-5th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$4.00
Aesop's Fables
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Aesop, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
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Animal Stories
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Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #33
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Dover 2017 from Dover Publications
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1950 Newbery Honor Book
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$6.95
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1931 Newbery Medal winner
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1931 Newbery Medal winner
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Cat Who Went to Heaven
by Elizabeth Coatsworth, illustrated by Lynd Ward
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1931 Newbery Medal winner
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Chester Cricket's New Home
by George Selden
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Animal Stories: Fantasy for 4th-6th grade
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Chronicles of Narnia - Deluxe Hardcover Boxed Set
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Allegorical Fantasy for 3rd-9th grade
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$139.63
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Allegorical Fantasy for 3rd-9th grade
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Clockwork Twin
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Collected Poems of Freddy the Pig
by Walter R. Brooks
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Cricket in Times Square
by George Selden
from Square Fish Publishing
Animal Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
1961 Newbery Honor Book
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$7.99
Cricket in Times Square
by George Selden, illustrated by Garth Williams
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Animal Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
1961 Newbery Honor Book
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Cricket in Times Square
by George Selden, illustrated by Garth Williams, foreword & updates by Stacey Lee
from Square Fish Publishing
Animal Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
1961 Newbery Honor Book
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$7.99
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by Hugh Lofting
from Mayflower Books
for 3rd-7th grade
1923 Newbery Medal winner
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Doctor Dolittle's Zoo
Doctor Dolittle #6
by Hugh Lofting
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Doctor Dolittle's Zoo
Doctor Dolittle #6
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by William Kozwinkle
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Eddie and his Big Deals
by Carolyn Haywood
10th printing, 1968 from William Morrow & Company
Realistic Fiction for 1st-5th grade
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Eddie and Louella
by Carolyn Haywood
7th printing, 1968 from William Morrow & Company
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by Robert Lawson
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by S.D. Smith
from Story Warren Books
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by Roald Dahl
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Animal Fantasy for 2nd-6th grade
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Favorite Just So Stories
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by H. B. Vestal
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Fishmeal and the Mounching Monster
by Michael Clay Thompson
from Royal Fireworks Press
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Fledgling
by Jane Langton
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
1981 Newbery Honor Book
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Flora & Ulysses
by Kate DiCamillo
Reprint from Candlewick Press
for 3rd-6th grade
2014 Newbery Medal winner
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Freddy and Mr. Camphor
by Walter R. Brooks
from Overlook Press
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Freddy and Mr. Camphor
by Walter R. Brooks
from Puffin Books
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Freddy and Simon the Dictator
by Walter R. Brooks
Reissue from Overlook Press
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Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars
by Walter R. Brooks
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Freddy and the Bean Home News
by Walter R. Brooks
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Freddy and the Dragon
by Walter R. Brooks
Reprint from Overlook Press
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Freddy and the Flying Saucer Plans
by Walter R. Brooks
Reprint from Overlook Press
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Freddy and the Ignormus
by Walter R. Brooks
from Overlook Press
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Freddy and the Men from Mars
by Walter R. Brooks
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Freddy and the Perilous Adventure
by Walter R. Brooks
Reprint from Overlook Press
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Freddy and the Popinjay
by Walter R. Brooks
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Freddy and the Space Ship
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Freddy Goes Camping
by Walter R. Brooks
Reprint from Overlook Press
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Freddy Goes to Florida
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Freddy Rides Again
by Walter R. Brooks
Reprint from Overlook Press
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Freddy the Cowboy
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Freddy the Detective
by Walter R. Brooks, illustrated by Kurt Wiese
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Freddy the Magician
by Walter R. Brooks
Reprint from Overlook Press
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