The Primary English Encyclopedia: The Heart of the Curriculum, Third Edition
Animals (in children’s stories and information texts)
See also history of children’s literature
Animals have been a favourite element in many children’s stories and information books over the centuries. In Aesop’s Fables (told to if not originally intended for children) the stories about animals which embody human characteristics of envy, greed, insensitivity and wickedness are used to bring about moral awareness (Flynn 2004).
A landmark book is Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, first published in 1877, written to draw the attention of adults to the plight of cab horses. Sewell uses the device of telling the story in the form of an autobiography of a horse and it soon became evident that children had a strong empathetic attachment to the story.
Very different from Black Beauty but also loved by children are Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books (1894–5) in which the animals speak to Mowgli (John Rowe Townsend thinks this is an acceptable convention which gives the animals a necessary dignity) and Kipling’s Just So Stories first published in 1902. Children love to hear these mythic versions of how the camel got its hump, the leopard its spots and the rhinoceros its folded skin.
In her very interesting analysis of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Julia Briggs remarks on the anthropomorphic approach to animals and while appreciating the exuberance of the characters also notes that ‘women and lower classes are silently excluded from this Arcadia’ (Hunt, 1995, Chapter 7, p. 181). If you are prepared to consider good retelling, Inga Moore has brought out a wonderfully illustrated abridged version in two volumes: The River Bank and The Adventures of Mr Toad (Walker Books). Older primary children might appreciate William Horwood’s sequels to Wind in the Willows which illustrate more current issues. For example, The Willows and Beyond includes the same characters now faced by pollution of the River and the threat of housing development on the land of the Wild Wood.
Beatrix Potter’s books, for example The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), and Alison Uttley’s The Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit (1929) create a world where animals talk, wear clothes and have a social life similar to human beings. Townsend and others believe Potter’s work superior: her illustrations are based on the scientific drawings she made of animals (Townsend, 1995). But I have a personal soft spot for the Little Grey Rabbit stories which I received regularly as welcome gifts when I was a child. I still recall the smell of the glue on the binding and the shiny smoothness of the little pages.
It is true that the humanised animal story can descend into cosiness and we can tend ‘to distinguish between “good” animals – usually meaning nice furry ones – and “bad” animals which are slimy or snappy and generally uncuddleable’ (Townsend, 1995, p. 95).
In seeking an explanation for animal fantasies being one of the most endearing and enduring categories of children’s fiction, I turn again to Townsend: it may be because of the essential innocence of animals who only know how to be the animal they are (Townsend 1995, p. 213). Of course there are some deliciously evil animal characters – the weasels in the Grey Rabbit books, Manny Rat in Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child and General Woundwort in Watership Down.
One of the most original animal stories of the second half of the twentieth century is Watership Down – Richard Adams’ extremely successful first book which is enjoyed by adults as well as children. Here we have a strong story about the dangers a community of rabbits meet in their search for a new warren. The rabbits have their own fascinating language and culture and the story is underlain by some profound ethical issues. The book explores issues about leadership, loyalty to friends and endurance for a cause. Two animal books concerning issues about animal welfare and its conflict with the interests of human beings (although not equalling the epic Watership Down in literary stature) are enjoyed by children of about nine years. The first, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien, tells two intertwined tales of a field mouse whose home is at risk from a plough and of rats who have escaped from a laboratory. The issues are dealt with in a way children can understand. The second, The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars, brings powerfully alive a young boy’s conflict between loyalty to a vixen who trusts him enough to show him her young and the relatives – farmers who have given him hospitality and friendship. This entry can only mention a few of the animal stories that are such a big part of most school collections. But I would like to mention the books about farmyard and other animals by Dick King-Smith. The Sheep-pig, Dodos are Forever, Daggie Dogfoot, The School Mouse and many others tell exciting stories with humour and compassion and are often about succeeding against the odds and making the best use of any talent you have.
The assumption that children enjoy factual books about animals has long been established: Thomas Boreman’s Description of Three Hundred Animals, first published in 1730, went into seven editions and books like this have been published ever since.
Today software, CD-ROMs (using sound as well as visual effects and text to bring alive animal habitats), and the Internet join the ever-popular large-print encyclopedias of animals and the traditional information books often concentrating on one species. The life cycles of creatures can be presented in narrative form and, with its similarity to story, is a sympathetic start to the world of information books for the very young. Quite a lot of books for the under sixes are structured by questions. Are You a Snail? in Kingfisher’s Up the Garden Path series brings humour and excellent illustrations to the task of identifying a snail’s characteristics. Animals that speak and dress are also used as a device to draw children into books imparting facts. For example, a mother and baby seagull have a conversation about the water cycle in MacDonald Young Book’s The Drop Goes Plop. ‘Genre confusion!’ warn the purists – but children seem to find the imaginary journey exhilarating and they remember the basic information well.
The growing feeling that we should respect animals is not only apparent in the hundreds of guides to caring for pets but also in books raising questions about our wider treatment of animals like Miles Barton’s Why Do People Harm Animals (Gloucester Press). Anna Sewell’s concern for animal welfare lives on.
Flynn, Simon (2004) ‘Animal stories’ in Peter Hunt (ed., second edition) International Companion Encyclopaedia of Children’s Literature, Volume I London and New York: Routledge.
Hunt, Peter (ed.) (1995) Children’s Literature: An Illustrated History Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. (Chapter 7, Section on Animals’ Lands.)
Townsend, John Rowe (1995 edition) Written for Children London: The Bodley Head. (Chapter 10, Articulate Animals.)
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