Realistic books about animals

[Rae36]

Not sure quite what I mean by my b.
Ds10 and I still read at night but I'm struggling to find books now.

He doesn't like anything magic, no Harry Potter or anything like that. He likes ordinary people doing ordinary but interesting things if that makes sense. He quite enjoys Famous Five, exciting but believable.

But he also quite likes books about animals doing realistic animal-type things and thats what he jas asked to read next. Like Jill Tomlinson, we've read all her Otter / Penguin / Gorilla Who Wanted to Know, I can't remember the exact titles. He liked Gobbolino, Stuart Little, that sort of thing.

Not fact books but fiction, animals doing interesting but believable things. I think that's what he's looking for. So he can learn some things about animals but there's also a story.

I wondered about Wind in the Willows but I haven't read it myself, is it quite long winded? He likes action rather than description.

He's quite young for his age so nothing too upsetting. He didn't like Michael Morpurgo, we read the one about the fox which we had to stop because it was upsetting, the Dancing Bear, that was better but he still found it quite sad. Maybe there are others that have happier endings?

I'd be glad of any recommendations, I love still reading together so I hope I can find the right book to keep his interest a while longer.

Tarka the Otter
Watership Down

I did think about Black Beauty but also thought it might be a bit sad. Is Watership Down not a bit of a tearjerker too? And quite long.

He's 10 but quite young and naive for his age. We've had 2 deaths in the family recently so just looking for straightforward, wholesome, cheery books about nice, friendly animals doing nice, cheerful, uplifting things.

I realise this is quite a specific requirement :)

But at least he knows what he likes.

I second The Animals of Farthing Wood (it's a series, so if he likes the first one, there are more!) and a number of Dick King Smith's books (although he may whizz through those if he's a good reader).
How about Charlotte's Web or Varjak Paw? Both of these plus the others have gone down well with my animal-loving DD.

I read Watership Down when I was younger than your DS, so he may be OK with it, but it is a more advanced book and quite scary and sad in some parts. It is the next book in the pile I plan to read to DD1.

The Mammoth Academy books by Neal Layton are fun and no peril IIRC! Lots of nice, funny illustrations of the characters and maps of their journeys.

If he likes Enid Blyton, he might like her farm books - Willow Farm, Cherry Tree Farm and Mistletoe Farm. The stories are very animal heavy.

The Incredible Journey?

He might be a bit old for them now but there’s a series about a girl called Sophie and her pets. Exciting but gentle and nothing magic. They’re by Dick King Smith (“the Sophie stories”).

Also her The Children at Green Meadows. I remember enjoying that one.

The Mr penguin series by Alex Smith I’d rather good but maybe a bit young for him.
Worth a look though.
Warrior cats but might be a sad for him.
The Podkin books- but again some deaths occur!
Ooh have you read The Bolds series by Julian Clary, they are amazing and lots of fun.

Oh, yes, that one is great!

When I was a child, I loved the book of Mr Popper's Penguins (much, much better and very different from the later film version).

I wouldn’t recommend black beauty or watership down as gentle uplifting books. Call of the wild and white gang may also be a little bit too gritty for what you want them for.

Colin Dann and Dick King Smith are good authors. Animals of farthing wood is a little aged now though but they’re great for learning about British wildlife even if moles don’t really ride on top of badgers! I Houdini is a great story from a hamsters perspective. Redwall is not animals doing animal things they’re anthropomorphic but still fun to read and although there are battles, there are also long (very long) descriptions of all the feasting the animals do.

I've ordered a few from the library from this list. Thanks for the suggestions.

I was in our local bookshop this afternoon and bought the Wind in the Willows on the basis that I've never read it either. That will keep us going then we can choose from the library ones.

Is The Incredible Journey the one about the dogs and cat who go across mountains to get home? Was it made into a film that has a different name than I can't remember? We did enjoy that film. Should we still read the book if we know the ending?
Or that might be a good thing, the tension of not knowing if the pets get home safe might not be what we need right now.

It is the same book as homeward bound was based on but I found the book a bit of a slog - I think you’ve had better suggestions to get on with for now personally

Yes to Animals of Farthing Wood and other Colin Dann but definitely NOT the newer “prequel” to Animals of Farthing Wood. Started it with DD (who is also very sensitive where animals are concerned) and realised that an animal dies every few pages 😱 whereas I’m sure that didn’t happen in the other books

I liked the Silver Brumby series at about that age. There’s a whole set of them -about wild horses in Australia -told from the horse point of view, having realistic horse adventures.

The Animals of Farthingwood gets my vote too. Lots of sequels, I think it was made into a cartoon, which also had moments to traumatise a generation. I used to love animal stories when I was much younger, loved the James Herriot books which are quite episodic so can make good short reads. I used to buy books by Joyce Stranger with my spends. She specialised in animal stories, some autobiographical, wrote loads and many volumes were quite slim. I don't know if she's still in print and the stories may have dated.

I can’t recommend the James Herriot books enough. There are ones aimed at children which are generally lovely and handle sad things very carefully.

the adult books are great reads too though and not inappropriate for children, apart from some specific medical detail that I needed to google to explain and some rather frank (but entirely accurate) talk about breeding, castration and birth which makes for some interesting bedtime chats.

The film was Homeward Bound.

Quite a lot of them are out of print but you might try some of the Joyce Stranger books. Some, like 'Midnight magic' were written specifically for children