ABSTRACT
Animal stories in all their variety hold a strong place in children’s literature. One of the most original animal stories of the second half of the twentieth century, and one enjoyed by adults as well as children, is Richard Adams’ Watership Down. Perhaps the animal ‘autobiography’ that has made most impact since Black Beauty is Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse. Dick King-Smith, a former farmer and teacher, knows how to select just those sort of animal characters and plots that tell us something about human longings and behaviour. By age nine or ten many children will be ready to read one of the great ‘talking animals’ classics: Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. A good place to start are the books of Beatrix Potter, a writer who was a close observer of the natural world who, like Alison.
