I have just read Michael Morpurgo’s The Butterfly Lion and Charlotte’s Web by EB White. What shall I read next?
Written almost 50 years apart and so reflecting very different times it is wonderful that you have enjoyed both Charlotte’s Web and The Butterfly Lion and want to use them as a stepping stone to what to read next. Both are packed full of adventure and emotions, both are about survival and, most obviously, both are about the very special relationship between a child and an animal.
The importance of animals in children’s lives is a theme that Michael Morpurgo returns to frequently. He has a very sure touch in his stories about the enriching relationships between children and animals as well as an unerring ability to write about a situation from an animal’s perspective in ways that will give a child a better understanding of the world.
In The Dancing Bear the friendship between Roxanne and Bruno, an orphaned girl and an abandoned bear cub, is tender and enriching to them both and to the rest of their village community. When a film crew arrive in the remote village wanting a dancing bear, the special value of the friendship is tested and found to be strong. These child/ animal friendships have an appeal that crosses all boundaries.
Morpurgo can also add a political dimension to his stories with animals as in his recent Shadow, the story of a dog and children from Afghanistan seeking asylum and in Out of the Ashes, one of his most hard-hitting titles. Written at the time of the real events of the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK in 2001 which affected everyone living on a farm, the story is told by Becky, the daughter of a farmer and it captures her utter despair as the pigs, cows and sheep on the farm all have to be slaughtered to stop the disease spreading. Here, and in his other farm-based stories, Morpurgo shows his deep understanding of animals and empathy with them.
EB White also wrote two other memorable stories about animals. In The Trumpet of the Swan, Sam, an 11-year-old on a camping holiday, watches over the hatching of the eggs on a swan’s nest. When the cygnets are born, one of them is unable to make a sound. How the swan parents help him to communicate in other ways makes a touching and amusing story very much on the spirit of Charlotte’s Web and with a similar “observing” child. The animals are both convincingly animal-like but also have obvious human characteristics.
Equally popular is EB White’s Stuart Little, an exciting and delightful story about an adventurous mouse’s story about survival in New York City.
For a quite different kind of story about an animal and child friendship and adventure Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother, the first in the excellent Chronicles of Ancient Darkness sequence, gives a special insight into the mind, behaviour and even the language of a wolf cub. When 12-year-old Torak’s father dies he finds he has a deadly mission to fulfil. It is only possible for him to succeed with the help of the sensitive and brave wolf cub who is his trusty companion.
Lauren St John’s brings the animals of the great African Plains to life in The White Giraffe, her excellent story about Martine, a recently orphaned 11-year-old, who finds emotional support in the magical white giraffe who helps to ease her deep distress. In Gill Lewis’s vivid Sky Hawk two children’s view of themselves and the world around them is transformed by their care for a beautiful bird who inspires them. An elephant might seem like a less likely source of comfort and inspiration but in Gillian Cross’s The Great Elephant Chase, a benign Indian elephant belonging to Cissie is at the heart of a great adventure. Cissie, helped by her friend Tad, is determined to get the elephant back from the treacherous Hannibal Jackson. It’s a desperate act and leads to a great adventure and wonderful journey across America.
Perhaps the most famous relationship between a child and animals is in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The story of Mowgli, the little boy who is brought up by the wolves in the Indian jungle, has delighted readers for over 100 years and have been adapted into films and musicals too. Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther, Shere Khan the tiger and Kaa the python are just some of the wonderful animals in Mowgli’s life.
