The best animal adventure books for young adults and animal lovers to experience the wild side

The Elephant Whisperer is a fast-paced, easy-to-read story about one man’s desire to create a safe and comfortable place in Africa for threatened wildlife species. The author’s quest is turned upside down when he acquires an aggressive, traumatized, and unmanageable elephant herd. He is forced to use his intuition to form a bond with the herd’s matriarch, to stop them from breaking out of enclosures and causing major damage to neighboring communities. It was a book I couldn’t put down; I highly recommend this book packed with information about the majestic, wild, African, elephant. As his plans frequently unravel the main character is forever changing strategy. The threat of poachers within his own guard, acquisitions of new unruly wildlife, and changing internal conditions, challenge him in non-conventional ways which he manages bravely and creatively. 

Shadow Horse, part of the Shadow Horse series starts immediately with action and tragedy, a young female teen is arrested for the assault of her grandfather’s employer. This in part seems to be in retaliation for the strange and mysterious death of her beloved horse, Whirlwind. Her life spirals downward with her grandfather’s sudden stroke and her court-ordered sentence of house arrest. She is relocated to a foster family on an animal and horse rescue farm for supervision. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it not only explores the extraordinarily complex relationships with horses and owners, but the problems involved with trusting again after a traumatic betrayal. And, if that was not enough, the writer intertwines all the above with a complicated who done it mystery involving horses which slowly puts the protagonist in dangerous, uncomfortable situations requiring her to find her inner strength and new allies.

This book depicts the death of Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard in 2003 by an Alaskan brown bear at Katmai National Park.  The reader is provided a wealth of information but must decide for themselves what really happened. As a past bear observer at Katmai National Park, I camped near brown bears twice, but in the parks designated electrified, fenced-in camping area, which was starkly different from Treadwells’ campsite within the grizzly maze. For twelve years prior, he continued his risky behavior and was unmolested by these very tolerant bears, but his luck ran out and the terrible attack occurred in 2003. This book provides a much more balanced portrayal of the bears than the 2005 movie Grizzly Man. The unique quality of Katmai National Park is the bears have become accustomed to people being there and an uneasy truce exists if you follow the bear guidelines and behave a certain way. This book gives a much clearer understanding of how the National Park Service has for decades tried to maintain the complex relationship between bears and people.

The central theme of The Winter Horses involves an almost extinct horse breed (Przewalski) with ties to prehistoric cave horses located in the middle of one of the worst wars in our human history, World War Two. As starvation and Nazi occupation reduce the humanity within, heroes surface to protect not only the horses but the desperate survivors who have adapted to living on the fringe. The book has much to recommend besides the local saviors, a young female Jewish teen surfaces who is on the run and befriends the horses. She along with the past horse caretaker precariously exist within the occupation, until she is forced to lead the horses away from death, through a snowy and treacherous terrain all while being pursued. This book explores the importance of protecting our fragile almost extinct animals, counterbalanced with highlighting the horses’ strong adaptive abilities that allowed them to survive so long. This is especially true when the horses become a protector of the teen, saving her from a treacherous wildlife attack. The book is remarkable because of its ambiguity, in some cases, there is no clear black and white and an occasional enemy will surface to do the right thing, and gives some hope to the beleaguered survivors.  

The Call of the Wild is Jack London’s best-known book and considered a classic for a good reason. Buck a domestic pet with wolf heritage, is kidnapped and sold into the dog trade to pull sleds in the Klondike. It is the beginning of his severe trauma and mistreatment. A distinguishing and popular aspect of the story is the narrative is from the dog’s perspective and his response to his handlers. He ends up with an unlikely rescuer who restores the bond between pet and owner, but his innate instincts lead him to want to run with the pack. The story changed me when I read it years ago and contributed to my fascination with wild animals. I frequently marvel at the similarities of domestic pet behavior to that of wild animals especially involving dogs and wolves.