Current mood:	silly
Current music:	L&O: CI theme song
Entry tags:	booklists, books

Booklist: Be Kind to Animals
In honor of Be Kind to Animals Week, I present to you a list of children's books for ages eight and up in which furry friends face fearsome feats - and they LIVE!

Elementary School
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo - Winn-Dixie is to Opal as Sandy is to Little Orphan Annie.
The Henry Huggins series by Beverly Cleary - Ribsy is Henry's fun-loving dog. He once gets lost, but then he is found, and now I'm unintentionally singing Amazing Grace.

Upper Elementary School
Coraline by Neil Gaiman - The cat rules. He would love Emily Strange's cats.
May Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson - Somber Kitty is precious.
The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford - Two dogs and a cat who travel quite a distance and overcome many obstacles to find their owners.

Middle School and High School
The Fallen by Thomas E. Sniegoski - Gabriel the dog is able to communicate telepathically with his owner. This is akin to Ponch from The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. I don't want to spoil anything about either series, so I'll just say that they are quite different series with quite different doggies, and The Fallen = angels while Wizards = magic.

If you and your little ones want to avoid danger and worry altogether, try these funny series which feature pets as supporting characters. All of the following are appropriate for elementary schoolers.

Judy Moody by Megan McDonald - A cat (named Mouse) and a toad.
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary - Henry has a dog named Ribsy, who even gets his own book!)
Socks by Beverly Cleary - A cat who doesn't understand why there's a baby in the house.
Harry books by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham - Cute dog, cute stories for beginning readers.
Most of the American Girls have pets - For example, Felicity has a horse and Josefina has a goat!
The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin - Mary Anne has a kitten named Tigger, and plenty of the other baby-sitters and baby-sitting charges have pets.

Yes, there are plenty of books that do not offer happy endings for the pets - some which I think are well-written and some that I think are highly overrated - but I'm not talking about those right now. (Sorry, Justine.)

Note that His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, which is for an older audience, defies category due to its inclusion of daemons, shapeshifting animals that are a mixture of person's pet, best friend, soul, and twin. (Kind of like Twinkie, though she can't shapeshift.)

My favorite literary critter companions of all time, curiously, are not domestic:
Pantalaimon the daemon from His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Falkor the luck dragon from The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende
Fiddlestick the dragon from Strangewood by Christopher Golden
Dot the laptop from The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane

Next up: CAT BOOKS!