Fans pick 100 books like Strength of a Lion, Soul of a Lamb

By Shirl Knobloch,

Here are 100 books that Strength of a Lion, Soul of a Lamb fans have personally recommended if you like Strength of a Lion, Soul of a Lamb. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Dog Hunters Illustrated: The Adventures of Llewelyn & Gelert Book One

Gail Notestine Author Of The Seven Foot Long Dog

From my list on Irish Wolfhounds as the main character.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Wolfhound parent and the author of books about this majestic breed. I have studied everything I could find about the Wolfhound since I first lost my heart to one many years ago, meeting breeders and owners alike to learn everything I could about their temperament and health. I have attended many dog shows and symposiums to further my knowledge of my breed. Having shared my life with this dog, unlike any other, I devour books written by other Wolfhound owners. 

Gail's book list on Irish Wolfhounds as the main character

Gail Notestine Why did Gail love this book?

A wonderful retelling of the legend of Gelert the Wolfhound.

This story of bravery and loyalty, starring the world's largest dog breed, takes the reader on an adventure of tremendous magnitude. I fell in love with the illustrations, I laughed at the jokes. I adored the book. This is one you will keep in your library for rereading.

By David Bell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Dog Hunters Illustrated as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pustulent, filth and fart filled adventure told on an epic, dog infested scale. The epic retelling of the legend of Gelert the Wolfhound, now fully illustrated by the author with over 230 wrist manglingly detailed drawings. While Welshmen die fighting English invaders, Prince Llewelyn is forced to study Plato. But then a mighty Chinese war fleet arrives, offering to annihilate Wales’s hated enemy. Their price? Llewelyn’s oldest friend, the mighty wolfhound, Gelert. Boy and dog are stolen in the night and dragged across storm tossed oceans and scorpion-infested deserts in a nightmare journey involving flying dogs, berserk baboons, and thousand-year-old…


Book cover of Battle For Arohanui

Gail Notestine Author Of The Seven Foot Long Dog

From my list on Irish Wolfhounds as the main character.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Wolfhound parent and the author of books about this majestic breed. I have studied everything I could find about the Wolfhound since I first lost my heart to one many years ago, meeting breeders and owners alike to learn everything I could about their temperament and health. I have attended many dog shows and symposiums to further my knowledge of my breed. Having shared my life with this dog, unlike any other, I devour books written by other Wolfhound owners. 

Gail's book list on Irish Wolfhounds as the main character

Gail Notestine Why did Gail love this book?

This is one of my special favorites. I know Amanda personally and knew and grew to love the real Millie and Bridie.

Arohuani is a magical kingdom ruled by Irish Wolfhound Queen Millie. When a dark force rises in the land, her daughter, Princess Bridie leads an army of wolfhounds to defeat the evil. This is one of my favorite books because it transports the reader to a world ruled by gently, loving hounds. I reread it yearly.

By Amanda Susan Van Vliet,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Battle For Arohanui as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

In the magical kingdom Arohanui, ruled by the wise and gentle Wolfhounds of the royal house of Kuri te Aroha, a dark force rises. The queen's daughter Bridie commands the guard of the only passage into the kingdom but as vigilant as she and her ladies are, evil finds its entry into their stronghold. They must forge unexpected alliances with others of their kind, along with the magical and unusual creatures of the kingdom, if they are to defeat this evil.

The Battle for Arohanui will be fierce, from the mountains, across the plains and to the shores of the…


Book cover of The Wild Stare: Ancient Hounds in the Modern World

Gail Notestine Author Of The Seven Foot Long Dog

From my list on Irish Wolfhounds as the main character.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Wolfhound parent and the author of books about this majestic breed. I have studied everything I could find about the Wolfhound since I first lost my heart to one many years ago, meeting breeders and owners alike to learn everything I could about their temperament and health. I have attended many dog shows and symposiums to further my knowledge of my breed. Having shared my life with this dog, unlike any other, I devour books written by other Wolfhound owners. 

Gail's book list on Irish Wolfhounds as the main character

Gail Notestine Why did Gail love this book?

This book is a must read for anyone considering getting an Irish Wolfhound or anyone who falls in love with one.

Bob's stories of his life with these giant dogs will warm your heart, make you laugh until you cry, and sometimes break your heart. His 20 year experience of living with dogs the size of small horses will have you rolling on the floor and crack your heart in two.

I love this book because I am the parent of Wolfhounds and Bob describes the challenges and rewards of sharing your life with a being that loves unconditionally, with a love as large as their valiant hearts and a personality as big as their bodies. Another book that I read numerous times, during the year.

By Bob McMillan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Wild Stare as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


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Book cover of Curiosity and the Cat

Curiosity and the Cat By Martin Treanor,

Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.

Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine,…

Book cover of Tales from Old Ireland

Kieran Fanning Author Of Irish Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends

From my list on Irish fairytales, myths, and legends.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Ireland, where I was surrounded by stories, modern and ancient. Irish myths and legends formed the basis of the history curriculum for most children beginning the subject. Irish children are incredibly familiar with "The Children of Lir" and legendary heroes like Cúchulainn – we even have a rollercoaster named after him in our only proper theme park! As a teacher, I continued to retell these stories to my young, receptive audiences. When I was given the opportunity to write my own book of fairy tales, myths, and legends, I jumped at the chance. The research, including the reading of the books on this page, was almost as much fun as writing my book! 

Kieran's book list on Irish fairytales, myths, and legends

Kieran Fanning Why did Kieran love this book?

This book, for younger readers, is a collection of retellings of some of Ireland’s most well-known stories like Oisín in Tír na nÓg, as well as less famous ones like Son of an Otter, Son of a Wolf. Doyle writes terrifically well, perfectly pitching his tales at a young audience. Illustrated by Niamh Sharkey in her distinctive style, this is a collection to be treasured. I loved the pronunciation guide for the Irish names, as well as the introduction and the page about Doyle’s sources.

By Malachy Doyle, Niamh Sharkey (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tales from Old Ireland as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

This book features tumbling tigers, happy hippos, rumbling rhinos and more! These lively animals and other creatures will help youngsters to count from one to twelve with the clever cockatoos. A delightful companion to Stephanie Bauer's "Alligator Alphabet", "Counting Cockatoos" also includes a colourful counting frieze.


Book cover of Friends With The Monsters

C. Y. Croc Author Of Matched to Xycho

From my list on sci-fi romance and fantasy with unearthly beings.

Why am I passionate about this?

UK-born CY Croc started her career in the health industry, but later changed professions after obtaining a postgraduate degree in teaching. It was while teaching she discovered her dream profession. An author was invited to the school to showcase her latest book. Inspired, CY wrote over 30 books in the next 3 years in contemporary, sci-fi, and paranormal romance. She loves to include positive subliminal messages in her stories about body image, prejudice, and love from a higher realm and always practices inclusion in her writing. Her main characters practice autonomy and come from all races. CY believes everyone should experience love, and that's why some of her protagonists are not of this world.

C. Y.'s book list on sci-fi romance and fantasy with unearthly beings

C. Y. Croc Why did C. Y. love this book?

Why only settle for one unearthly lover when you can have 3? Especially when the female protagonist turns out to be somewhat monstrous herself? This book features 3 completely different male monster protagonists that will stop at nothing to protect the female protagonist. You’ll find it difficult to choose your favourite book boyfriend in this exceptionally entertaining monster reverse harem.

By Albany Walker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Friends With The Monsters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Gather round close, for I have a secret to tell.

Late at night, while everyone is sleeping, dreaming of white knights and fairytales. I’m making friends with the monsters.

They call to me, like finds like, right? My biggest secret, I’m the scariest monster I know.

I think I’m the bad guy.

MFMM Reverse Harem novel with adult themes not recommended for those under 18.


Book cover of The Secret of Platform 13

Melissa Marr Author Of The Hidden Dragon

From my list on if you want to go on a magical adventure.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on fairy tales and folklore in the Appalachian Mountains. Stories of adventure and dusty fairy tale books in my grandmother’s attic were my entertainment. The library trips we took “into town” added to my reading. I discovered that the step from fairy tales to classics wasn’t as wide as folks argue. Years later, when I went off to college, I became an English major, then a graduate student, and then started teaching literature at college. From childhood to adulthood, magic and fiction were my life... which led to selling a book of my own. Over the last 17 years, I’ve been writing fantasy.

Melissa's book list on if you want to go on a magical adventure

Melissa Marr Why did Melissa love this book?

Long before Harry Potter came The Secret of Platform 13, and the idea of a railroad station where a magical doorway existed.

I grew up in a town built on the railroad. My grandfather worked as a mechanic at the railyard. My field trips were to train museum or train-related locations, so the idea of hidden portal there made perfect sense to my childhood heart.

Trains take us places, why not a magical world? It simply makes sense to me to find a magical world beyond a train station.

By Eva Ibbotson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Secret of Platform 13 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

Under Platform 13 at King's Cross Station there is a secret door that leads to a magical island . . .

It appears only once every nine years. And when it opens, four mysterious figures step into the streets of London. A wizard, an ogre, a fey and a young hag have come to find the prince of their kingdom, stolen as a baby nine years before.

But the prince has become a horrible rich boy called Raymond Trottle, who doesn't understand magic and is determined not to be rescued.

Shortlisted for the Smarties Prize, The Secret of Platform 13…


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Book cover of Beneath the Veil

Beneath the Veil By Martin Kearns,

The Valor of Valhalla series by Martin Kearns is a pulse-pounding dark urban fantasy trilogy that fuses the raw power of Norse mythology with the grit of modern warfare. Set in a world where ancient gods and mythical creatures clash with secret military organizations and rogue heroes, the series follows…

Book cover of The Beast's Garden

Leanbh Pearson Author Of Three Curses and Other Dark Tales

From my list on folklore retellings in fantasy & horror.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write fairy tales and folklore, dark fantasy and horror. I have an academic background in history and archaeology. I am Australian (yes, lots of scary creatures here!) but inspired by this rich, multicultural country with First Nations tales for over 60,000 years. I am fascinated by how fairy tales, folklore and mythologies can be similar and yet so intriguingly different across time and space, written and oral telling. I love the enduring power of the fairytale and how, with each retelling, it transforms it into a new story, and as people travel, new tales are retold and transformed into a new version for a new place and generation. 

Leanbh's book list on folklore retellings in fantasy & horror

Leanbh Pearson Why did Leanbh love this book?

I adored this book. I loved its clever fairy tale reimagining of Beauty and Beast set in 1940s Germany under the Third Reich. I enjoyed the transformation of this classic fairy tale into a historical novel that was rich in detail and unique characters and revealed much of the hidden voices of resistance within Germany during this time.

Forsyth is a fellow Australian fairytale, fantasy, and historical author who writes fantasy, history, fairy tale, and myth retellings reimagined into new settings that I find inspiring and the power of the fairy tale to be retold and made new and to endure. 

By Kate Forsyth,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Beast's Garden as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Australian paperback edition of novel by acclaimed writer, Kate Forsyth. "Filled with danger, intrigue and romance, The Beast's Garden, a retelling of the Grimm brothers' Beauty and the Beast, is a beautiful, compelling love story set in a time [WWII Germany] when the world seemed on the brink of collapse.


Book cover of Mio, My Son

Carole McDonnell Author Of The Constant Tower

From my list on unplanned or obsessively-planned journeys.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a wife, mother, writer—and the mother of a disabled non-verbal thirty-three-year-old man. I'm also Black and a Christian, both of which can be problematic to many readers. I write fantasy and mainstream stories, Christian and non-Christian. Some fantasy readers have certain fears, stereotypes, and expectations of fantasy books written by minorities. Others have those same fears, stereotypes, and expectations of books written by Christian writers. I'm very good at accommodating my readers. For the most part, my readers never feel as if they’re being preached at or lectured. Some aren’t even aware that I'm Black or a Christian, even though my concernsimperialism, injustice, spirituality, ethnicity, disability, and feminismare throughout my stories.

Carole's book list on unplanned or obsessively-planned journeys

Carole McDonnell Why did Carole love this book?

This is a fairy tale. I’ll state this upfront because at first glance, it’s a bit of a hard read. And why is it a hard read? Becauseto me, anyway—it feels like wish-fulfillment fantasy on steroids. It’s like the rantings of a terribly abused boy. Of course, much fictionespecially fairytales which is this book’s genre—is wish fulfillment. But the story feels very uncomfortable. Mio is so over-the-top happy about having been transported into the kingdom of his father the king that one feels as if one is listening to a pitiful delusion.  I found myself reading the book with two minds. One mind kept saying, “Dive into the reverie and joy of a boy who has found his dead father in a faraway land and who discovers that he’s important to the world.” And simultaneously, my other mind was thinking, “Oh my heavens! This little boy…

By Astrid Lindgren, Ilon Wikland (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mio, My Son as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 6, 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

Young Anders is carried away from his bleak life as an unloved foster child in Stockholm, Sweden, to become Mio, son of the King of Farawayland.


Book cover of The Complete Fairy Tales

Paul Frank Spencer Author Of Marvelous Light

From my list on revealing God’s reality through metaphor.

Why am I passionate about this?

My very intelligent, very (self-described) un-literary father taught me all about the complexities and beauty of God. My librarian mother gave me the literature that would introduce me to the most profound descriptions of those complex beauties. As the author of Marvelous Light, numerous metaphor-dependent blog posts, and future allegorical novels, I hope to introduce each of my readers to the divine realities on which I depend daily.

Paul's book list on revealing God’s reality through metaphor

Paul Frank Spencer Why did Paul love this book?

Lewis considered George MacDonald his spiritual father, having never met the man. He said that MacDonald introduced him to the gospel through his stories before he even knew that that’s what was happening. How? Metaphor. George MacDonald knew of God’s love more than most and did his best to share it with the world, deeply hidden in fairy tales, the kind of folklore that Lewis, Tolkien, and the rest of the Inklings loved so dearly.

By George MacDonald, U.C. Knoepflmacher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Complete Fairy Tales as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries. This volume brings together all eleven of his shorter fairy stories as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination". The subjects are those of traditional fantasy: good and wicked fairies, children embarking on elaborate quests, and journeys into unsettling dreamworlds. Within this familiar imaginative landscape, his children's stories were profoundly experimental, questioning the association of childhood with purity and innocence, and the need to separate fairy tale wonder from adult scepticism and disbelief.


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Book cover of Girl of Light

Girl of Light By Elana Gomel,

A girl of Light in a world of darkness.

In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading…

Book cover of Mechanica

Sara Fujimura Author Of Faking Reality

From my list on teens who are builders and makers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write books for intelligent, adventurous, globally-minded teens who aren’t afraid to fall in love with someone different from themselves. I started as a journalist, so it is no surprise that my YA books contain a lot of facts to go along with the fiction. Whether you want to know about Japan (Tanabata Wish), the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 (Breathe), what it’s like to be an Olympic-caliber skater (Every Reason We Shouldn’t), or how unscripted television works (Faking Reality), I take readers on swoony journeys to unusual places. So, if you like books that educate as they entertain, I hope you’ll check this book list—plus my books—out.

Sara's book list on teens who are builders and makers

Sara Fujimura Why did Sara love this book?

I wasn’t sure how Cornwell could possibly make a Cinderella retelling fresh and unique, but she did. She roots Nicolette—who her evil stepsisters call Mechanica—deep enough in the classic fairytale that we get all the satisfying beats, but then Cornwell turns them on their head. I love steampunk stories, and Cornwell replaces the Disney-fied animal helpers with mechanical insects and a metal horse fueled by coal and outlawed faery magic. She also addresses some outdated ideas in earlier renditions for a modern twist set in a Victorian-ish time period. Though Nicolette is not the first mechanical Cinderella on the YA bookshelf, Mechanica is not a rip-off of Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. I enjoyed both of them. 

By Betsy Cornwell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mechanica as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Nicolette's awful stepsisters call her "Mechanica" to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother's knee. Her mum is gone now, though, and the Steps have pushed her into a life of dreary servitude. When she discovers a secret workshop in the cellar on her sixteenth birthday and befriends Jules, a tiny magical metal horse. Nicolette starts to imagine a new life for herself. And the timing may be perfect: There's a technological exposition and a royal ball on the horizon. Determined to invent her own happily-ever-after, Mechanics seeks to wow the prince…


Book cover of The Dog Hunters Illustrated: The Adventures of Llewelyn & Gelert Book One
Book cover of Battle For Arohanui
Book cover of The Wild Stare: Ancient Hounds in the Modern World

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Interested in fairy tales, the Republic of Ireland, and lions?

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