Hello! Last week it was snowy, today it’s hot in my broken-air-conditioner house, and tomorrow it’s supposed to snow again! But it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another list! Today we’re talking about Animals from Books. I thought this one would be a challenge, but I managed to come up with 10! These involve animals of all types: magical animals, regular animals, shapeshifters, and mythical animals.
Church – Cat from the Shadowhunter’s Universe. Church was the first animal that came to my mind when I thought about animals in books. Jem rescued him in Clockwork Angel, and he’s appeared in all the major Shadowhunter series ever since (Church is immortal). After Jem became a Silent Brother, he went to live with Magnus for a while, and then went to live in the New York Institute, and now he lives in California, often with Jem, but he tends to do his own thing.
When Elephants Fly – Nancy Richardson Fischer. I bet you can guess that the animal featured in When Elephants Fly is–an elephant. T. Lily Decker is an intern at the local newspaper and watches an elephant almost kill her calf. She goes on a road trip to try to save the elephant–all while she harbors fears of becoming schizophrenic like her mother.
Jack – Little House on the Prairie. Jack (you can see him on the cover following the wagon) was Laura’s faithful bulldog, who followed Laura all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to “Indian Territory” on the prairies to the south. Since this series of books follows Laura from a little girl (age 5, I think) to a young lady, we see Jack age. Losing Jack in the books is almost as sad as losing my own pets.
Wicked Fox – Kat Cho. Gu Miyoung is a Kitsune–they have the ability to shapeshift into humans. I don’t like calling her an animal, because she has such human characteristics, but we’re embracing animals, animal-like creatures, and human-like beings who can turn into animals this week.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The Dragonlance books are the classic fantasy with dragons books. We don’t see the dragons until well into the first book, but there will be plenty throughout the series.
My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George. I thought this week would be difficult, but I’m finding a lot of stories I haven’t talked about for a while! This is a story of a boy who runs off into the mountains and lives in the woods by himself. His only companion becomes a falcon.
The Crow Rider – Kalyn Josephson. In The Crow Rider, people once rode crows through the sky like one might ride a horse. Unfortunately, something happens to many of the crows.
The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater. From riding crows to riding murderous horses. If your TBR isn’t booked for November 1st, might I suggest The Scorpio Races? That is, if murderous horses are your thing. I loved this book.
The Black Stallion – Walter Farley. This world needs more horse books. The Black Stallion turns 80 this year. I haven’t read this since I was a kid, but Stiefvater’s murderous horses reminded me of this wonderful book and how much I loved horses in elementary school.
Dragonslayer – Duncan M. Hamilton. This is the story about an older guy who thinks his fighting days are behind him, who is suddenly thrust into the position of having to go fight a dragon. It was different than many other dragon books I’ve read.
Thats 10! I thought it would be difficult to find ten books with animals in them, but surprisingly, there were more books than I thought there’d be. Even better, I got to talk about books I haven’t mentioned in a while.
What did you come up with this week? Next week we’re going to talk about the 10 most recent books we’ve read. Easy peasy! Although I’m going to cheat a bit, because out of the last 10 books I’ve read, 7 of them were by the same author in the same universe. So I’m going to lump all of those together.