100 books like The Donkey in Human History

Author McDougall took a mistreated donkey—with hooves left untrimmed for so long he could barely walk—restored him to health and trained him to run alongside McDougall in a burro race. The contest had them scaling mountains and fording streams, something the author wasn’t certain Sherman could pull off. McDougall recalls with humor how the donkey gained confidence and developed a faith in humanity as a result.

Probably a lesser-known book, Brighty still packs a powerful emotional punch. Similar to Pax, the book speaks movingly about the power of the wild and the value of allowing animals to exist on their terms. In addition to this less, Brighty also tells of the moving bond between a spitfire donkey and a pair of old men working the Grand Canyon. Although he loses his companion, a prospector named Old Timer, early in the book, Brighty never forgets the man’s kindness. He spends the rest of the book, loyal to another man, Jim, seeking justice for Old Timer’s murder. Throughout the book, Brighty never loses the wild inside him and Marguerite Henry does a masterful job of weaving together the themes of loyalty, purpose, and respect for Brighty’s personal integrity. Although mostly considered a children’s book, Brighty is well-worth the read for any adult looking for a story to… show more.

I love a book that makes me laugh and The Wonky Donkey does not disappoint! Like so many others, I discovered this book from a viral video of a Scottish grandmother reading to her grandson. She couldn’t stop laughing... I knew I had to have this book! 

Bonus... expressive illustrations, repetitive sentences, and a tongue-twister, this book is educational and great for beginning readers. A must-have for any home library.

When I hear bad grammar, I cringe. So this book was cringeworthy, but because it was done in a silly way to show bad grammar and how to correct it, it was very clever. A yam tries to get a donkey with poor grammar to speak correctly. When his vegetable friends butt in to see what the fight is about, the donkey has the last word.

Rarely does a book that is beautifully written (so much so that I found myself jealous of Nicholas Day’s prose) also give me such a visceral punch in the gut. I don’t mean to suggest that the scenes in Day’s book are beautiful; they are anything but. The story includes the threat of flesh-eating donkeys for crying out loud, but as ridiculous as that might sound, they are truly terrifying. The scenes and events are hard, gritty, violent, and depressing, but somehow, I found them exhilarating. I often buy books to read on my Kindle for economic reasons, but after reading this one, I had to order a physical copy for my library. The setting of GYBTD strikes me as perhaps being appropriate in the universe of Stephen King’s gunslinger in the Dark Tower series (another of my very favorite pieces of literature). Just writing about Grind Your Bones… show more.

I have to admit that I haven’t reread this one as an adult, but it was pure gold in my childhood. It never grew old, and no matter how many times I read it, it always thrilled me. I felt like I was going through the ups and downs of saving the mare and foal with the two characters. And there’s a donkey! There simply aren’t enough books about donkeys, in my opinion. My copy fell apart years ago, I read it so many times. It’s sad today to see that there are no new releases or ebooks – but thankfully, you can still find used copies. 

The narrator is turned into a donkey and undergoes various tribulations before recovering his human form. The only Latin novel to survive complete, it is a unique curiosity shop of diverse treasures: fantastical, comic, bawdy, beautiful, violent, and finally—biggest surprise of all—devoutly religious. "It smells of incense and urine," Flaubert said. Much of the work consists of tales related by the characters whom the donkey comes across, of which the longest is Cupid and Psyche, a fabulously rococo display of exquisite and enchanted storytelling. The virtuoso beauty of the description of Cupid’s wings is unbeatable. "Reader, listen up: you’ll love it," says the narrator at the start. You will. Again, go for Ruden’s translation.

Like Tschiffely’s Ride this is a travel narrative, given heightened interest and amusement by the addition of Modestine the donkey who carried Stevenson’s luggage. Modestine, like all donkeys, was a master at manipulating her inexperienced new owner, but the two forged an understanding that took them nearly 300km through some of France’s wildest landscapes. Written in 1879, this is a fascinating account of a vanished France, beset by religious conflict, where lodging might be found in the corner of a field as well as a flea-ridden inn. The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail is now a popular walking route through the Cevennes. I walked it earlier this year and enjoyed nightly readings from the book.

Sometimes, when we read history, it seems so dry and different from our own lives that it's hard to comprehend. In the 1920s and 30s, June Burn homesteaded on an island in the San Juans, lived in Alaska, and traveled across the country with a donkey cart. Yet I can envision myself in her adventurous life because her views were so much like my own. She was a feminist and a strong, brave woman who used her writing as an excuse to talk to strangers.

I recommend One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow for three reasons. First, it’s set in the same general time and place as my novel and depicts many of the hardships that frontier women faced in the second half of the 19th century. It also tells a story about an unlikely but necessary friendship, thematically akin to my novel. And finally, the prose is lovely and a joy to read.