Animals in Children’s Literature

Children’s books usually treat animals in one of two ways: either the animals represent attributes like love and loyalty yet remain strictly realistic (Where the Red Fern Grows, The Black Stallion) or they interact with their fellow animals as humans interact with each other (Frog and Toad are Friends, Bread and Jam for Frances). Personally, I’ve always preferred the latter; after reading Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, with its proper English rodents and amphibians lunching on sandwiches and wearing waistcoats, real animals seemed dull. I’ve since amended my viewpoint, but I still can’t help wishing that a smiling cat would help me tackle existential riddles, á la Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat.

Indeed, the Victorians took the fairy tale concept of talking animals and ran with it. However, instead of imbuing their animals with the wisdom of prophesying donkeys and birds, authors like Grahame, Carroll, and Charles Kingsley created characters based on human attributes. Mr. Toad, therefore, typifies the lovable nonconformist, the White Rabbit displays a Type A personality, and the Otter from Kingsley’s The Waterbabies represents every parent who has ever claimed to want the best for her children while setting a negative example in her greed and heartlessness.

Contemporary children’s authors still use humans as models for animals, whether to carry on the great fabulist tradition, as Jon Scieszka does, or to help children learn about friendship and caring, as Arnold Lobel and Tomi Ungerer do. The late Richard Scarry once said he used animals to eliminate racial stereotypes, and also because children relate better to talking animals in stories than to talking children. It’s an intriguing premise, one that has been hooking kids on reading for years.