Speaking Volumes: Plenty of options when talking animals for adults
Beatrix Potter, who would be celebrating her 152nd birthday in July, got her fame for her endearing books featuring anthropomorphic animals. But what happens when Potter fans grow up?
Fortunately for us, there’s plenty of books for grown-ups with talking animals that deal with larger issues such as war, discrimination, corruption, relationships and loss.
In addition to classics such as George Orwell’s "Animal Farm," Richard Adams’ "Watership Down" and H.G. Wells’ "The Island of Dr. Moreau," check out these books filled with furry friends and fiends.
▪ "Mort(e)," by Robert Repino, is an action-packed, apocalyptic tale of attempted human extinction at the tiny hands of ants who have transformed pets into two-legged assassins.
Sebastian is a housecat-turned-solider-turned-detective on a quest to find a dog named Sheba who is rumored to be with the human resistance fighters. Though a pretty zany premise, this book is a great twist on the typical crime-suspense novel.
▪ "The Crane Wife," by Patrick Ness, is the delicately written story of George Duncan, a kind but lonely divorcee, father, and paper artist.
When he saves an injured crane by removing an arrow from its wing, he has no idea his good deed will lead to a mysterious woman entering his life and stealing his heart. A retelling of a Japanese folktale, this story is magical realism at its finest.
▪ "Maus: A Survivor’s Tale," by Art Spiegelman, is a Holocaust memoir and was the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Spiegelman depicts Jews as mice and Germans as cats in this anthropomorphic story of how his father survived the Holocaust and struggled with survivor’s guilt.
The book also highlights Spiegelman’s tumultuous relationship with his father, who passed away before the book was published and reached critical acclaim.
▪ "Wicked," by Gregory Maguire, is the revisionist origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West when she was a young scholar known as Elphaba.
In Maguire’s version of Oz, Elphaha becomes a rights activist for “Animals” — animals that are sentient like humans — and finds herself in the middle of Oz’s political and social turmoil.
Chock full of deception, love affairs, coups, murder, and of course some flying monkeys, this book is the grown-up, complex and very wicked version of the sweet story we loved as children.
If you want to revisit Potter’s classic stories themselves, your library has a large selection, from “A Tale of Benjamin Bunny” to “A Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck”.
If you’re interested in Potter herself, you can find a comprehensive biography, “Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman,” by Judy Taylor which is chock full of illustrations, and “Beatrix Potter’s Letters,” a collection of correspondence edited by Taylor.
In addition, we have several film and television adaptations of her works on DVD. These and other items can be found at your local library.
Stephanie Katz is a technology trainer librarian and editor-in-chief of 805 Lit + Art, a literary magazine published by the library at www.805lit.org. Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Public Library System staff members, is published each Sunday in the Bradenton Herald. You can access the library via the Internet: www.mymanatee.org/library.
This story was originally published June 29, 2018 at 12:48 PM.