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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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
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$4.00
Archer's Cup
by S. D. Smith
from Story Warren Books
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Bellmaker
Redwall #7
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from Firebird Press
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Blue Cat of Castle Town
by Catherine Coblentz, illustrated by Janice Holland
Dover 2017 from Dover Publications
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1950 Newbery Honor Book
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$6.95
Burgess Animal Book for Children
by Thornton W. Burgess
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by Thornton W. Burgess
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Cat Who Went to Heaven
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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 - Quality Softcover Boxed Set
by C. S. Lewis
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Allegorical Fantasy for 3rd-9th grade
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Chronicles of Narnia - Quality Softcover Set
by C. S. Lewis
from HarperCollins
Allegorical Fantasy for 3rd-9th grade
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Clockwork Twin
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Doomwyte
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Great Christmas Kidnaping Caper
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Animal Stories for 4th-8th grade
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Jungle Book
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Just So Stories
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Redwall #12
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Personification for 4th-6th grade
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Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
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Personification for 4th-6th grade
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Mistmantle Chronicles Book 1
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Mossflower
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Mouse Butcher
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Mouse of Amherst
by Elizabeth Spires, Illustrated by Claire A. Nivola
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$3.00 (2 in stock)
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny - Detectives Extraordinaire!
by Mrs. Bunny, translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
from Yearling
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Nuts to You
by Lynn Rae Perkins
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Old Meadow
by George Selden
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One and Only Ivan
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2013 Newbery Award Winner
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Outcast of Redwall
Redwall #8
by Brian Jacques
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Paddington At Large
by Michael Bond
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Paddington At Large
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Paddington on Screen
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Pearls of Lutra
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Pigs Might Fly
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Old Natalia #3
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Redwall #17
by Brian Jacques
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$9.99
Redwall
by Brian Jacques
1st edition from Firebird Press
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$10.99
Redwall Cookbook
by Brian Jacques
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by Brian Jacques
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Rogue Crew
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Sable Quean
Redwall #21
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Secrets at Sea
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Silver Chair
Chronicles of Narnia Book 4
by C. S. Lewis
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Allegorical Fantasy for 3rd-9th grade
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Simple Art of Flying
by Cory Leonardo
from Simon and Schuster
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Stories Julian Tells
by Ann Cameron
Reprint from Random House Books for Young Readers
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
Stuart Little
by E. B. White
60th Anniversary Edition from HarperCollins
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
Taggerung
by Brian Jacques
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$10.99
Tale of Despereaux
by Kate DiCamillo
from Candlewick Press
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2004 Newbery Medal winner
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$8.99
Tales of Uncle Remus
by Julius Lester
Reissue from Puffin Books
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The Underneath
by Kathi Appelt
Reprint from Atheneum
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2009 Newbery Honor Book
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Triss
by Brian Jacques
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Trouble in Bugland
by William Kozwinkle
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Trumpet of the Swan - Special Edition
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Tucker's Countryside
by George Selden & Garth Williams
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by George Selden; illustrated by Garth Williams
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Velveteen Rabbit - Coloring Book
from Dover Publications
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Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
by Hugh Lofting
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1923 Newbery Medal winner
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$8.99
Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
from Aladdin Paperbacks
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Word of Mouse
by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, Illustrated by Joe Sutphin
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$7.99