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Thursday 7 July 2011

Dog Days...


What Animal-related books have I read?
Which do I love?
Do I have a favourite literary dog?

This has ended up as a rather long list of wonderful books...  I hadn't realised just how many animal characters I have really loved reading about over the years.  Some are real.  Some are toys who become real or real who become toys.  Some are magical in some way.  Some are cartoons.  But all I have truly adored.  I thought I should probably divide them into groups but they are in no order of preference.

Cats

The Wild Road (and the sequels in the series) by Gabriel King
Its a Magical World - Hobbes - Bill Watterson
Born Free - Joy Adamson
Gobbolino the Witch's Cat - Ursula Williams
The Cat in the Hat - Dr Seuss
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T S Eliot
Garfield Whatever - Jim Davis
Adolphus Tips - Michael Morpurgo

Horses & Unicorns

Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
The Little White Horse - Elizabeth Goudge
The Last Unicorn - Peter S Beagle
The Black Unicorn - Terry Brooks
Moorland Mousie - Golden Gorse

Dogs

Grey Friars Bobby - Eleanor Atkinson
Roverandom - J R R Tolkien
Lassie Come Home - Eric Knight
101 Dalmatians - Dodie Smith
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
White Fang - Jack London
The Incredible Journey - Sheila Burnford
Fantastic Mr Fox - Roald Dahl
Peanuts Jubilee - Snoopy - Charles M Shulz

Birds and Flying Beasts

The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark - Jill Tomlinson
The White Dragon (and other Pern books) - Anne McCaffrey
The Ice Dragon - George R R Martin
The Snow Goose - Paul Gallico

Rodents

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
Manx Mouse - Paul Gallico
Martin's Mice - Dick King Smith

Rabbits

Watership Down - Richard Adams
Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams
The Brer Rabbit Book - Enid Blyton

Others

Ingo (And the others in the quartet) - Helen Dunmore
Charlottes Web - E B White
The Snow Spider Trilogy - Jenni Nimmo
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Elmer - David McKee
Tarka the Otter - Henry Williamson

With these novels I find that they are often heart wrenching in places and exciting in others.  A few of these books are particular personal favourites that I have read many times Velveteen Rabbit and Brer Rabbit were two of the rabbit stories I loved.  As a child we had many pets, particular favourites of mine were rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, dogs and cats.  

My favourite literary dog is a draw... two very different books, I love Bobby the loyal little dog in Grey Friar's Bobby and I adore Buck the stolen pet who ends up in the Yukon Territory working on a dog Sledge team in Call of the Wild.


10 comments:

Confuzzled Shannon said...

Wow.... That is some list. I never even heard of most of these. Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Great list! I've even spotted a few I forgot - 101 Dalmations, Black Beauty and Animal Farm are conspicious by their absence from my list, as I loved all three!

Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier. :)

FBT said...

Ooh yes, The Cat in the Hat! Children's books are full of animals, but I didn't think that far.

Vicki said...

Wow!!! That's a lot of animal books. I'll have to check it out more closely and see if I find some I'd like to read. I love books about animals, just don't like the sad ones.
Here's My BTT

DawnTreader said...

Wow what a list. I've got Wind in the Willows and Watership Down on my list too. And I've also read Joy Adamson's Born Free.
http://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.com/2011/07/booking-through-thursdaydog-days.html

Anonymous said...

Terrific list of books, enjoyed.

http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/07/booking-through-thursday.html

Anonymous said...

Great list! I'll have to bookmark it so I can refer back to it when I'm looking for an animal book.

Jo K said...

Wow, what a list! I haven't read most of those books, but love Lassie Come Home and The little White Horse. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Priya said...

Wow, awesome list!! I agree with you on most, starting with Born Free! I love animals, and I'm definitely going to check out those books on your list that I haven't already read!

Here's my BTT: http://peskypiksipesternomi.blogspot.com/2011/07/btt-1-dog-days.html

Halie said...

Thanks for providing a great list. Maybe one of these days I'll check some of them out.

Halie

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