I was born and grew up in India and I’ve always been fascinated by elephants. When I wrote The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic, it felt natural to have Mini, the elephant, become part of its world. She’s not the main character, yet her presence raises questions about the place of these amazing animals in our world and in our hearts. I picked five titles in which elephants are secondary characters, raising similar questions for readers about who these extraordinary creatures are and why we should care. Curiously, I couldn’t find a single novel featuring African elephants.
I love historical fiction, and I love stories within stories and this novel is both! It’s set at the end of World War II, just after the Allied bombing of Dresden. We’re following 16-year-old Elizabeth, her Mutti, her little brother Karli, and a downed Swiss-Canadian airman as they flee to safety near Heidelberg in the company of—yes, really—an elephant! A story of survival, of endurance, of building lives. The human relationships, in a dark and dangerous time, are brightened by the unexpected presence of one remarkable animal.
A thrilling and moving new novel about an extraordinary animal caught up in a very human war, for anyone who loved The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips or The Butterfly Lion...
Dresden, 1945. Elizabeth and Karli's mother works at the zoo, where her favourite animal is a young elephant named Marlene. Then the zoo director tells her that the dangerous animals - including the elephants - must be shot before the town is bombed. Unable to give Marlene up, their mother moves her into the back garden to save her... and then the bombs start to fall.
The older I get, the more fascinated I am with family history and the way certain traits or talents get passed down – or not. Unfortunately, we don’t always know much about our own ancestors. Maybe that’s why I appreciate a multigenerational story that shows all the forms a young person’s “inheritance” can take, whether money, looks, a special skill or talent, or even a disease. And because I’ve always loved a good mystery, I enjoy books where a young person seeks to uncover a family secret. Finally, now that I’m on the older side of the generations, I appreciate a book that portrays older family members realistically and with respect.
The premise of this book gets big points for originality: Lexington Willow is orphaned as a toddler by a tornado, literally blowing into the life of elephant Nyah, who protects and comforts the little girl in the storm and forms a mysterious connection with her. The wind is also a character in the book, hanging around long after the tornado. It knows things Lex doesn’t, and sometimes whispers to her.
The Elephant’s Girl portrays friendship, secrets, and a family’s pain in search of healing. Toss in a ghost for good measure, and what’s not to love?
A magical adventure for fans of Katherine Applegate and Jennifer Holm about a girl with a mysterious connection to the elephant who saved her life.
An elephant never forgets, but Lexington Willow can't remember her past. Swept away by a tornado as a toddler, she was dropped in a nearby Nebraska zoo, where an elephant named Nyah protected her from the storm. With no trace of her family, Lex grew up at the zoo with her foster father, Roger; her best friend, Fisher; and the wind whispering in her ear.
Years later, Nyah sends Lex a telepathic image of the…
I’m a journalist and a social media prof. I talk to thousands of kids every year about what they read on the Internet. And frankly, they’re confused—as we all are—about what’s true online and what isn’t. To spot misinformation, kids have to become better critical thinkers. That’s why I wrote Can You Believe It? and it’s why I’m recommending these great books. It’s also helpful to know what credible journalism looks like. My TeachingKidsNews.com (TKN) is a kid-friendly news source that kids and teachers can trust. In addition to publishing TKN, I’ve authored six children’s books and I have a Master’s degree in Creative and Critical Writing.
To encourage young readers to think critically, Vampenguin is a good choice. The misdirection isn’t quite so obvious. A family of vampires is at the zoo. The smallest vampire gets switched with a penguin (hilarious drawings make this sleight-of-hand possible). The child reader can see what the family in the story doesn’t—their “baby” is actually a penguin. Even better, the baby vampire and the penguin switch themselves back and the family never finds out. Once again, the young reader has out-smarted everyone by thinking critically. Nice!
From the critically acclaimed author and illustrator of A Hungry Lion and Stumpkin comes a charming, wryly humorous story of adventure, mistaken identity, and a vampire family's day at the zoo.
On a Saturday morning, baby Dracula visits the zoo with his family, where baby Penguin lives with hers. But these intrepid young adventurers are not content with staying in their proper places.
Instead, baby Dracula slips into the Penguin House to spend the day eating, swimming, and hanging around, while baby Penguin waddles into the stroller to explore the rest of the zoo. Dracula's family doesn't even notice the…
Growing up, my family was a meat and potatoes family. The food was good but it was never really about the food. It was about eating together. When I got older, I ventured beyond the world of meat and potatoes, made more friends to eat with, and learned more and more to enjoy the little things in life. My two books are about food but also not really. They're community books. Family books. Adventure books. Same thing with the 5 books on my list. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Hungry Roscoe is hilarious. I love it. I always feel that humor is so important in picture books, and funny books were always my favorite as a young chap.
It has such a fun story, and I can imagine that it was a blast to illustrate. The pictures really push the humor. I had so much fun reading it, and I kept thinking, "Boy, this is great. I hope they stick the landing." And they really did! I love the ending. It's a really good book.
Roscoe is a hungry raccoon fed up with eating rotten junk out of the bins. What he wouldn't give for a lovely bit of fish or some fresh, juicy fruit -and where better to find food than at the zoo! An excellent idea, except for the grumpy zookeeper who's intent on keeping Roscoe OUT. But Roscoe's come up with a plan to disguise himself as a zoo animal. . . . What could go wrong?
When I’m not out rescuing lost dogs or walking our dog, Beau, in the hills of Sonoma County, I’m reading, writing, blogging, or offering writers' support. Our family started when we took in a baby for foster care, then a year later, after great effort, prayer, and help, we completed her adoption. As for canines, we’ve adopted four dogs, all from dogs returned to their breeders or an animal shelter. Three of our dogs happened to be only one year old when we took them in. I continue to research and edit my Dog Leader Mysteries blog. Twelve years blogging about saving dogs.
I love this book, and I want to buy one for every animal lover I know. Chapters feature Temple Grandin’s unique observations of dogs, cats, horses, pigs, chickens, and cattle. Temple Grandin pushes back on popular methods of dog management. Grandin thinks like a scientist and states observable facts.
Most Americans keep one dog. A single dog living in a family compares to a child living with parents. Dogs see their roles as puppies, wanting to please. Dogs watch people’s faces for clues on how they should behave. Dogs’ wild ancestors, wolves, live in small families, never in massive packs. Neither wolves nor dogs display a need for fights over dominance.
How can we give animals the best life—for them? What does an animal need to be happy? In her groundbreaking, best-selling book Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin drew on her own experience with autism as well as her experience as an animal scientist to deliver extraordinary insights into how animals think, act, and feel. Now she builds on those insights to show us how to give our animals the best and happiest life—on their terms, not ours. Knowing what causes animals physical pain is usually easy, but pinpointing emotional distress is much harder. Drawing on the latest research and her…
I am Rachel Hamilton and I’m the author of the Exploding series with Simon & Schuster and the Unicorn in New York series with OUP and Scholastic. I love making people laugh, especially when it's intentional rather than accidental. As well as writing books, I write comedy sketches and have performed standup as part of the Funny Girls tour in the Middle East. It's hard to do humor well, so I have huge respect and admiration for the authors on this list, because they do it fantastically. I hope you love their stories as much as I do.
I’ve been a huge fan of Swapna and Sheena’s since I first read Dave Pigeon, which is so good it’s now a set text on the Creative Writing degree I teach. These two are champions of slapstick, silliness, and subversive creatures with big hearts. And Bad Panda is, arguably, their greatest creation. She’s SO desperate to be bad, but she is scuppered at every turn by the fact that everything she does looks so ridiculously cute. The result is panda-monium (groan!)
“Are you sick of being utterly adorable?
Tired of being cuddled and hugged?
Fed up of having your head confused for your bottom because you just so happen to be SOOOOPER-DOOOOOPER fluffy?
Lin: If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you’re in the right book.”
Are you sick of being utterly adorable? Tired of being cuddled and hugged? Fed up of having your head confused for your bottom because you just so happen to be SOOOOPER-DOOOOOPER fluffy?
Lin: If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you're in the right book.
Everyone thinks that Lin is the cutest panda in the world. So much so that they ship her off to the local zoo, away from her beloved brother, to be ogled at by the masses. But Lin HATES being cute, and now she will do everything in her power to prove that…
As a fiction writer and animal studies scholar, I’m always looking for strange historical anecdotes about human/animal relationships and literary works that help me view humanity’s complex historical relationship with our fellow creatures through fresh eyes. As these books show, whenever humans write about animals, we also write about personhood, bodily autonomy, coexistence, partnership, symbiosis, spectacle, sentience, and exploitation—themes perpetually relevant to what it means to be human!
Hannah Tinti’s debut collection is a darkly funny book of stories about how people coexist with animals. The stories are both harrowing and heartfelt. Her sense of humor is just the right level of disturbing for me.
Slim’s Last Ride, the bizarre tale of a little boy convinced his pet rabbit can fly, narrated by his equally unwell mother, realistically depicts mental illness and dysfunction.
How To Revitalize the Snake in Your Life is an icy revenge fable involving an ex-boyfriend’s abandoned snake, repurposed as dinner.
Unlike my other picks, many animals in this one are inconvenient, unwanted, or misunderstood by their human companions, leading to tension and danger.
A zoo worker, cautiously washing down Marysue the elephant, thinks of the strange, grim stories his co-workers have told him about their lives. Giraffes in another zoo demand better living conditions and stage a mock group suicide to attract public notice. A girl escapes her repressive finishing school by running off with her lover to the African jungle but takes longer to give the slip to the private detectives hired by her father. Hannah Tinti s debut collection combines the virtues of traditional story-telling with utter freshness and modernity. Snake or dog, buffalo or turkey, the animals in her brilliant,…
Animals! And a zoo! Kristy Farrell is a middle-aged mom, a true everywoman character.
I love stories with ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. Kristy seeks a permanent position with a wildlife magazine and goes to the zoo to interview people for an article. There she finds a body – a human body.
When the zoo director dies from snake venom, her brother – in charge of the zoo’s reptiles – is the main suspect. Kristy must clear her brother, and along the way uncovers dangers for exotic animals. Picking a favorite novel among cozy mysteries is like asking me to pick a favorite grandchild.
Schmitt deserves to be brought to the attention of people who love the traditional cozy mystery, but might miss an excellent series from a smaller publisher.
A zoo with its lions, crocodiles, and snakes is a dangerous place — a perfect place for murder. When the director of a Long Island zoo is murdered by snake venom, Kristy Farrell, former English teacher turned wildlife reporter, takes a personal interest in the case. Her brother Tim, the zoo’s curator in charge of reptiles, is the leading suspect. Although the evidence is circumstantial, Kristy is sure the homicide detective, a childhood nemesis of her brother, is out to frame Tim.
I have seen a huge shift in the way others look at me and treat me since losing complete vision in one eye. I’m now labeled. It’s not fun, it’s disturbing and sad, and even though my appearance has slightly changed, I have not. “my disability does not define who I am” I may smile, but it doesn’t mean I don’t struggle and we can all use some kind words and encouragement and not be so judgmental.
A fantastic story about two best friends where one has autism and although other children mock her for flapping her arms, they learn about autism and about being themselves no matter what others think. A wonderful book showing kids that it's ok to laugh with others but not at them.
Harper and Emma are two best friends who first met at the pool in the summer. Emma has Autism which affects her speech, but she does not let it slow her down. She has a different way to communicate. Harper learned about Autism and how to communicate with her new best friend. Now the girls are getting ready to go to the zoo for the first time. What animals do you think they will see?
While enjoying the animals Emma becomes excited and flaps her hands, making noises. A group of children come over and begin to point and stare.…
I was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, but inherited ‘travelling DNA’ from my sailor father which has led to a life of work and travel around the globe. In addition to being an audiologist and teacher, I am also the author (and sometimes illustrator) of 15 children’s picture books. Many of my books have been inspired by the special children I have had the privilege to work with as both an audiologist and teacher. My books are on a variety of topics including childhood hearing loss, dysgraphia and writing challenges, bullying and forgiveness, learning English as an additional language, and positive self-image. Some of my books are written to evoke giggles and belly laughs.
A wonderful book that celebrates the beauty of diversity. Our world is full of people (and animals!) who do not look the same whether it be the colour of their skin, the shape of their eyes, or the length of their limbs. These people bring with them a vast range of talents, abilities, and creativity. How boring our world would be if everyone looked the same and could do all the same things! The illustrator did a fantastic job bringing this story to life and the author did a fabulous job with the rhyming text. A lovely book that is sure to be enjoyed by anyone who ventures to open the pages.
Zebra's desperate to blend in like a chameleon. Penguin yearns for a cheetah's speed. When the chance to swap their key traits and characteristics arises will these zoo animals learn they're perfect just as they are?
When tiger announces the swap shop has arrived the animals rush to have their wishes granted. However, they soon find out that what they desire comes with unexpected consequences. Will zebra ever get his stripes back? And can warthog convince the animals that not every wish needs to come true?
Sometimes we should be careful what we wish for and learn to love ourselves.…
