Heroes With Tails

Posted by Better World Books on 06.21.2012 at 4:52 pm

Melissa Baron is a writer living near Chicago who works in the world of publishing.  She shares her observations, insights, and opinions about books at her blog: miskadoodlewrites.wordpress.com.  Today she shares a short trip down memory lane with the tail-sporting heroes of classic children’s books.

We’ve all, at one time or another, wondered what the world would be like from an animals’ perspective, and contemplated how wicked cool it would be if animals could talk. All right, maybe more so when we were children versus now, but there’s a reason Disney and Pixar films featuring animals draw in just as many adults as children (not including said children’s parents). Or is that just my friends and I? Anyone? *crickets chirping* All right, moving on.

Anthropomorphizing animals is like the greatest thing ever, and shows up everywhere; films (Land Before Time, oh man does anyone remember those movies? The first one makes me cry. Every. Single. Time), television shows, comics, books. I’m particularly interested in books centered on them, especially when the animals are the stars, and not just side characters, a la the Cheshire Cat or the White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland. There are many, many out there, so I’m going to count down my favorites. Let’s tap into that inner child and geek out a bit over our favorite animal heroes, shall we?

So come along with me!

The Wind and the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

My adoration of this book started early. Read more…

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