Book Topics: Animals

Book Recommendations by Theme are listed here in order to help teachers, book club organizers, and other readers find books organized around a common principle, or big idea. Please see the Main Page List of Themes for more categories, as well as Book Lists by Topic. 
Please click each title for an individual book summary and review, with a list of topics and themes, awards, and related book recommendations.

Animal as Antagonist

The Dog Dies

Just kidding. No spoilers here. But seriously, there are enough books for this to be its own category, and authors should really consider just letting the dog live.

People Who Love Their Animals

Better with Butter (fainting goat)
A Boy Called Bat (skunk, rabbit)
Catherine, Called Birdy (birds)
Charlotte's Web (pig)
Checked
Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (dog)
Dog Whisperer - Rescue (dog)
Elephant Secret (elephant)
Eragon (dragon)
Flora and Ulysses (squirrel)
Hachiko Waits (dog)
The Honest Truth (dog)
How to Train Your Dragon (dragon)
The Hungry Place (horse)
Little House series (dog, horses, calves)
Love That Dog (dog)
A Million Shades of Gray (elephants)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (rabbit)
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl (dog)
The Neptune Project (dolphins)
Notes from a Liar and Her Dog (dog)
Out of My Mind (dog)
Paint the Wind (horses)
Rescued (orangutan)
Rules (guinea pigs)
Six Impossible Things (dog)
Some Kind of Courage (horse)
Stella (dog)
Stone Fox (dog)
365 Days to Alaska (crow)
The True Meaning of Smekday (cat)
Under a Painted Sky (horses)
The War That Saved My Life (horses)
Where the Red Fern Grows (dogs)
Willodeen (screechers and imaginary creatures)
Woof (dog)

Studying / Research of Animals

Airborn (fictional creatures, but still observing)
Consider the Octopus (oceanography/garbage patch)
Endangered (bonobos)
Frankie Sparks and the Class Pet
Listening for Lions - ornithology
The Naked Mole-Rat Letters
The Neptune Project (science fiction study of dolphins)
Something Rotten   (study of roadkill)
Song for a Whale   (whales and communication)
Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave (various facts)
Threatened (chimpanzees)
Zoey and Sassafras (fictional animals, real processes)

Talking / Thinking Animals

Charlotte's Web (various farm animals)
Crenshaw (imaginary cat)
Dog Man
Flora and Ulysses (typing squirrel)
Good Dog  (dogs, cat)
Hamster Princess (hamster, quail)
How to Train Your Dragon (dragons)
James and the Giant Peach (insects)
Masterpiece (beetle)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (stuffed china rabbit)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (mice, rats, owl, crow, others)
The One and Only Ivan (gorilla, elephants, dog)
The One and Only Bob (dog)
The One and Only Ruby (elephant)
Orphaned (gorilla)
Paint the Wind (horses)
Rescued (orangutan)
The Seventh Wish (fish)
The Tale of Despereaux (mice, rats)
The Underneath (dog, cats, other)
Wedgie and Gizmo (dog and guinea pig)
Wishtree  (various tree-dwellers)
A Wolf Called Wander (wolf)
Woof (narrating dog)

Wild Animals in Captivity

Elephant Secret
The Magician's Elephant
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
The One and Only Ivan
Rescued
The Tiger Rising
Book Topics - Main Page