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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"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth
by Eric Carle
from World of Eric Carle
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"Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!"
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Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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Book for Bramble
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Animal Fantasy for Preschool-2nd grade
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My Father's Dragon Trilogy #2
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Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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Frog and Toad Are Friends
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Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
1971 Caldecott Honor Book
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Frog and Toad Together
An I Can Read Book Level 2
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Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
1973 Newbery Honor Book
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from Houghton Mifflin
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Great Rescue Operation
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Grouchy Uncle Otto
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Hat
by Jan Brett
from Penguin Putnam
Animal Stories: Fantasy for Preschool-2nd grade
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Hedgie's Surprise
by Jan Brett
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Hello, Red Fox
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Hot Air
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by Bernard Waber
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House on East 88th Street
by Bernard Waber
1999 edition from Weekly Reader
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How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?
by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
from Blue Sky press
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by Nancy White Carlstrom, Illustrated by Thor Wickstrom
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Infamous Ratsos: Project Fluffy
by Kara LaReau, Illustrated by Matt Myers
from Candlewick Press
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by Dennis Haseley, illustrated by Steven Kellogg
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Jamberry
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Jumanji
by Chris Van Allsburg
from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Stories: Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
1982 Caldecott Medal winner
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Jumanji
by Chris Van Allsburg, Robin Williams (Narrator)
30th Anniversary Edition from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Stories: Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
1982 Caldecott Medal winner
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$16.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Kermit the Hermit
by Bill Peet
from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-4th grade
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Koala Lou
by Mem Fox, illustrated by Pamela Lofts
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Lamb And The Butterfly
by Arnold Sundgaard
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Library Lion
by Michelle Knudsen
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Little Whistle
by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Tim Bowers
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Little Whistle's Dinner Party
by Cynthia Rylant, Illustrated by Tim Bowers
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Lost in the Woods
by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick
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Lyle at the Office
by Bernard Waber
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$2.80 (1 in stock)
Marzipan Pig
by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Quentin Blake
from New York Review of Books
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$4.80 (1 in stock)
Misoso
by Verna Aardema
illustrated edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
Mitten
by Jan Brett
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
Animal Fantasy for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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$4.80 (1 in stock)
Mouse Tales
An I Can Read Book Level 2
by Arnold Lobel
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-3rd grade
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Mr. Sipple and the Naughty Princess
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Mr. Tiger Goes Wild
by Peter Brown
from Little, Brown & Company
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
New Shoes
from First Second
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in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$16.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Olivia - Board Book
by Ian Falconer
from Atheneum
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-1st grade
2001 Caldecott Honor Book
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$3.60 (1 in stock)
Olivia Saves the Circus
by Ian Falconer
from Simon and Schuster
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Once a Mouse
by Marcia Brown
2nd edition from Aladdin Paperbacks
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for Kindergarten-3rd grade
1962 Caldecott Medal Winner
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$6.79 $3.60 (1 in stock)
One Silver Second
by Daphne Doward Hogstrom, illustrated by Gordon Laite
Stated First Printing from Rand McNally
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$16.00 (1 in stock)
Patrick's Dinosaurs
by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick
from Clarion Books
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$2.40 (1 in stock)
Piggins
by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jane Dyer
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by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jane Dyer
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by Janette Sebring Lowrey & Gustaf Tenggren
from Golden Books
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Poppleton
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Princess Gorilla and a New Kind of Water
by Verna Aardema, illustrated by Victoria Chess
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Puppy Who Wanted a Boy
by Jane Thayer, Illustrated by Lisa McCue
from William Morrow & Company
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Quick Chick
Puffin Easy-To-Read Level 1
by Julia Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Rainbow Rhino
by Peter Sis
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$2.80 (1 in stock)
Rat-Catcher's Son
by Carolyn London
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
for 1st-3rd grade
$2.40 (2 in stock)
Reading-Literature: Second Reader
by Harriette Taylor Treadwell, Margaret Free
from Yesterday's Classics
for 1st-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$11.86 $5.20 (1 in stock)
Rooster, the Mouse, and the Little Red Hen
by Nova Nestrick (editor), illustrated by Bonnie & Bill Rutherford and Eulalie
from Platt and Munk Publishers
for Nursery-2nd grade
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$2.80 (1 in stock)
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