Animals in fiction
Writers have argued about tame and wild, kind and cruel, for as long as museums have. Free classics link to Project Gutenberg; books still in copyright are named so you can find them at a library.
From the estate
The Owl and the Pussy-cat
A cat and a bird go to sea together: friendship across species, in invented words.
The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots
The cat as trickster: a working animal who wins by wit. Read it at your level (K–2, 3–5) or as a serial.
Charlotte's Web
A pig, a spider and the question every farm raises: who is raised to be eaten. In copyright: on the estate bibliography, read at the library.
Classic animal literature, free to read
Just So Stories: The Cat That Walked by Himself
A fable of domestication: the dog, horse and cow accept a bargain; the cat keeps its own terms.
Black Beauty
A horse tells its own life. The book helped end the cruel bearing rein and fed the animal-welfare movement.
The Jungle Book
Wolves raise a boy: what separates the wild from the tame.
The Call of the Wild
A stolen pet dog is sold into sled work in the Klondike and goes back to the wild: domestication in reverse.
White Fang
A wolf-dog moves the other way, from the wild to a home. Some scenes of animal cruelty: preview first.
Moby-Dick
An industry built on hunting a sea animal for oil: read beside the tuna room.
In copyright: find at your library
Where the Red Fern Grows
Two hunting dogs in the Ozarks, and a boy who saves to buy them.
The Incredible Journey
Two dogs and a cat cross the Canadian wilderness to get home.
The Old Man and the Sea
An old fisherman and a giant marlin: the sea as livelihood.