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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329th Friend
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Adventures of Bob White
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Animal Stories: Fantasy for 2nd-4th grade
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Amos and Boris
by William Steig
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Animal Fantasy for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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Angelina's Baby Sister
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Angelina's Birthday
by Katharine Holabird; illustrated by Helen Craig
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Animal Stories
by Joel Chandler Harris, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
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Ant and the Elephant
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Animal Fantasy for Preschool-4th grade
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Arthur's Honey Bear
An I Can Read Book Level 2
by Lillian Hoban
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Animal Fantasy for Preschool-3rd grade
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2011st edition from HarperCollins
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1st edition from Random House Books for Young Readers
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$15.95
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by Laurent de Brunhoff, translated by Merle Haas
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by Elaine Waisglass
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Babe the Gallant Pig
by Dick King-Smith
1st edition from Yearling
Animal Stories: Fantasy for 2nd-5th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.99
Baby Sister for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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Baby Sister for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from Scholastic Inc.
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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Baby Sister for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from Atlas Editions
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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An I Can Read Book Level 2
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for Kindergarten-2nd grade
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$4.99
Bear Called Paddington
by Michael Bond
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 2nd-4th grade
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$10.99
Bear Called Paddington
by Michael Bond
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 2nd-4th grade
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$8.99
Bear Called Paddington
by Michael Bond
50th Anniversary Edition from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Fantasy for 2nd-4th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Bear Circus for Our Friends the Kangaroos
by William Pene du Bois
from Viking Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Beatrix Potter Mask Book
by Beatrix Potter
from Frederick Warne & Company
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Bedtime for Frances
by Russell Hoban
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Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Bedtime for Frances
by Russell Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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$16.99
Bedtime for Francis
by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Garth Williams
from Scholastic Inc.
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$2.00 (1 in stock)
Bedtime Stories
by Thornton W. Burgess, illustrated by Carl & Mary Hauge
from Dover Publications
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Ben and Me
by Robert Lawson
from Little, Brown & Company
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$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
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by William Joyce
from HarperCollins
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Best Friends for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$7.99
Best Friends for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Big Bad Bruce
by Bill Peet
from Sandpiper Books
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-4th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$9.99
Big Book of Animal Stories
by Thornton W. Burgess
from Dover Publications
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Bill Peet Collection
by Bill Peet
from Sandpiper Books
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
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$190.97
Billy Mink
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #33
by Thornton W. Burgess
Illustrated from Dover Publications
for 2nd-5th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$4.00
Birthday for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$9.99
Black Horse
by Marianna Mayer
from Dial Books for Young Readers
for Preschool-3rd grade
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Blacky the Crow
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #30
by Thornton W. Burgess
from Dover Publications
for 1st-4th grade
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$5.00
Bonjour, Babar!
by Jean De Brunhoff, introduction by Kevin Henkes
from Random House
Animal Fantasy for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Bowser the Hound
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #27
by Thornton W. Burgess
from Dover Publications
for 1st-5th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$6.00
Brave Davy Coon
by Laurence Hyde
from Harper & Brothers
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Bread and Jam for Frances
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$9.99
Bread and Jam for Frances
I Can Read! Level 2
by Russell & Lillian Hoban
from HarperCollins
Animal Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
in I Can Read Books (Location: EAR-ICR)
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by Ruth Belov Gross
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$1.50 (1 in stock)
Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox
by Joel Chandler Harris, Jane S. Shaw
1st edition from Collins
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Buford the Little Bighorn
by Bill Peet
from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-4th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$9.99
Burgess Animal Book for Children
by Thornton W. Burgess
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
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$10.99
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