I want to preface this by saying that there are many animal stories that are heartwarming or even funny. But there are also many animal stories written for children in which terrible things happen. Even when there is a satisfying ending, so much of what’s there is heartbreaking. The cruelty and indifference of human beings, and the trapped feelings of not just the animal but the people who love that animal can be just horrifying. These aren’t intended to be horror stories, but sometimes they feel that way.

I am not a big reader of animal stories. But in the past month I have had two really well-done ones come my way, both hitting me and my kids on a visceral level. Both of them are also Newbery Award winners, so chances are that if you have an elementary aged kid whose teacher requires that he or she read a Newbery winner, that your child might choose one of these.

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was the pick of the girl whose turn it was to choose a book for my kids’ second and third grade book discussion group (I don’t think I would recommend it for this age– it’s pretty intense for seven and eight year olds). One way to describe this book is as the story of a boy and his dog. But there is a lot more going on than that. Marty is an eleven year old boy living in rural West Virginia, part of a family that has to make every dollar stretch. Shiloh, a runaway dog, follows Marty home, but the dog belongs to Judd, an unpleasant man who is abusive to his dogs, and Shiloh has to be returned to him. When Shiloh runs away a second time, Marty hides the dog, but protecting the dog leads to more and more lies, and eventually Marty is found out and the dog has to be returned. Marty finally gets the dog, but only after he catches Judd hunting out of season and covers it up. Marty’s dad points out that there is no way to save every abused animal in the area, and Marty knows his dishonesty is wrong, but he does save Shiloh from Judd’s abuse. Maybe for kids it is clear cut– from my son’s account of what happened during the book group, the major thing was that the dog was saved from this horrible man, but as an adult, these things make the book even more difficult, and a very uneasy read (there are several sequels to Shiloh, which I have not read, that may explore these issues further).

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is a recent Newbery winner that arrived as a request for review.  It has just been released in paperback and is a spotlight title in the flyer for the Scholastic Book Fair that I received last week. I had read it previously, and it is a brilliantly written book, but it was an entirely different experience reading it with my daughter. This book is based on the true story of a gorilla who was trapped in a cage in a circus-themed mall for 27 years before protesters succeeded in having him relocated to a zoo. Applegate wrote the book from Ivan’s point of view, and it is mesmerizing. The difference between reading it myself and reading it to a seven-year-old is that I have background knowledge and can step back from the story when (for example) Ivan relates how he saw his parents killed, with their hands, heads, and feet chopped off, and can see a gorilla hand ashtray in the window of one of the mall stores (I have seen both a gorilla hand ashtray and an elephant footstool in a museum collection, and it is baffling and terrible that any person would do this). For my daughter, it’s bloody, heartbreaking, and horrifying. The mall owner is neglectful, and as in Shiloh, a father and child are caught in a moral dilemma: if he reports the condition of the animals to save them,  he will lose his job working in the mall. They do finally make that difficult choice, although in this case, saving the animals means being honest, and there’s no unsolved ethical dilemma. My daughter insisted on speeding through it so she could find out what happened to Ivan, and is still processing the story. The Monster Kid was not able to handle the human cruelty in the book, however, so know your child, and expect to be discussing it with him or her.

Dylan, the original Monster Librarian, loved books where the animals terrorized humans, such as those by Guy N. Smith and James Herbert. Those REALLY aren’t my thing, but he felt that, somehow, through those books, justice was served. But as Stella, the elephant from The One and Only Ivan said,  “Humans can surprise you sometimes”. Certainly, although there is cruelty and indifference in animal stories written for children, there is also, often, kindness and love. Although it seems obvious to say that it’s best to pay close attention to what you are recommending to a child, I think that it’s worth it to remember that even when a story has a happy ending,  not all animal stories are sweetness and light. Both books are highly recommended for grades four and older, depending, of course, on the child.