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Fauna and the Kiddies

Kermit the Frog
We've discussed cats, dogs, and other creatures in keeping with our fauna theme this month. One area we may have shortchanged, however, is their presence children's books.

Many of our little ones have grown up on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cat in the Hat, Charlotte's Web, the animals in Dr. Dolittle books. A lot of us read Black Beauty when we were young, as well as Where the Red Fern Grows—one of my son's favorites.

Young children love animals and will often sit still for extended periods while we read to them from books about personified critters who can think and speak like humans.

Henny Penny in Chicken Little is convinced the sky is falling. Then we have the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, who are being pursued by the big, bad wolf. Winnie the Pooh is a teddy bear, and Peter Rabbit, one of my father's favorites in the early 1900s, has survived for more than a century



This short list of animal characters from books doesn't even scratch the surface of all those who've enriched the lives of youngsters over the years. Do you have a favorite from your childhood? How about your children? Was any particular animal book special to them?

Editor Linda Lane has returned to her first love—writing—while maintaining her editing work. Her novels fall into the literary category because they are character driven rather than plot driven, but their quick pace reminds the reader of genre fiction. They also contain elements of romance, mystery, and romance. You can contact her at websites: LSLaneBooks.com and DenverEditor.com.

Comments

  1. To this day I still remember how deeply The Animals of Farthing Wood affected me reading it as a child. I was also moved by Charlotte's Web, although I first saw that as a movie before reading the book. I love the song "Bright Eyes" from Watership Down but I don't recall ever seeing that movie or reading the book.

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  2. I used to read the Bobbsey Twins books, The Triplets Go Places, and later Nancy Drew and Beverly Gray mysteries.

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  3. I don't remember any animal books from when I was very small, but did love the Jack London novels when I was a little older. I'll need to ask my grown-up boys if they had favorites when they were little.

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    1. My 6th grade teacher read Jack London novels to us at the end of each day if we had completed our work. I loved those, too.

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  4. My granddaughter has an obsession with unicorns. I'm not even sure she knows they're not real. She has books, stuffed animals, framed pictures, a unicorn she can ride around the house, ceramics, and two book bags or backpacks, to name a few. To her they are magical.

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  5. I love the world of children and their not always having to deal with reality. Imagination is a wonderful gift; it's sad when we lose it -- or maybe we don't if we're writers. :-)

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