Awesome Animal Books

The world beyond Charlotte's Web

Since the days of Aesop's fables, animal stories have brought readers closer to the animal kingdom while pointing up truths about the human world. Besides, they've included some of the most fun books ever written. On this list you'll find fantasies, such as a hilarious novel about a suit-wearing fox who can't stop raiding the chicken coop. You'll also find stories about people and animals together, like a true tale about a family living with a friendly hundred-pound guinea pig known as a capybara.

• Arabel's Raven by Joan Aiken
  Always hungry and often cranky, Arabel's pet raven Mortimer is even more trouble out in the city than he is at home.
• Babe the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith
  Yes, it's that Babe—star of the hit movie—as he first appeared, in this wacky British novel.
• The Bat Poet by Randall Jarrell
  A small bat stays awake all day, discovering things his nocturnal friends could never imagine.
• Capyboppy by Bill Peet
  In this true story for people of all ages, a giant South American rodent called a capybara takes over a family's home—and swimming pool.
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
  What would happen if a clever spider could weave not only webs, but words?
• The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
  Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, street-smart residents of a New York sewer, befriend a musical country cricket named Chester.
• Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
  Mr. Fox creates an underground world with splendid feasts as he works to outwit farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean.
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
  During her solo journey from Alaska to California, an Eskimo girl is accepted by a pack of wolves.
• Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
  This classic portrays real events on Virginia's Chincoteague Island, where every year wild horses swim from island to shore.
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
  While trying to save her home from a farmer's plow, a field mouse encounters a colony of lab rats with humanlike intelligence.
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
  Mole emerges from hibernation and into a series of adventures with brave Rat, reclusive Badger, and impossible Toad.