Animals in Literature

We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves is Karen Joy Fowler’s seventh novel. The book was first published in 2013. The following year, it won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Fowler said that the book takes inspiration from a real 1930s experiment. In an interview with Carmen Maria Machado published in The American Reader, Fowler states that she believes that using animals for research purposes is wrong, and... Read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Summary

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Wilson Rawls was born in 1913 in the Ozark Mountains in the Oklahoma/Arkansas region of the United States, where Rawls time spent roaming the hills with his dogs. His level of formal education left him unsure of his formal writing ability, and he disposed of his manuscripts. However, his wife encouraged him to start again, leading to the publication of Where the Red Fern Grows in 1961 and The Summer of the Monkeys 15 years... Read Where the Red Fern Grows Summary

White Fang (1906) is a short novel by American author Jack London. The novel explores themes of survival, nature versus nurture, and improving oneself through discipline and adaptability. White Fang’s protagonist is a wild-born wolfdog named White Fang whose struggle for survival and eventual domestication comprise the novel’s narrative arc. London’s novel challenges humanity’s claim to superiority over nature and celebrates animals’ resilience, simple logic, and instinct. White Fang has been adapted into over a... Read White Fang Summary

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Wildwood is a 2011 children's fantasy novel written by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, his wife. Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the folk-rock band The Decemberists. Ellis created album cover art for her husband’s band and provided more than 80 illustrations for Wildwood. Her artwork employs a dark but whimsical tone and has been compared to Edward Gorey.Wildwood was a New York Times best seller and won the 2012 Middle... Read Wildwood Summary

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First published in 1994, Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod is a nonfiction young adult book by Gary Paulsen, who has won several awards for his outdoor adventure stories. The first-person narrative recounts Paulsen’s life as a novice dog-sled runner who takes on the challenge of Alaska’s iconic Iditarod race. The special cross-species relationship between Paulsen and his canine companions steers him through the perils of Alaska’s harsh terrain as he overcomes his... Read Winterdance Summary

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Wishtree (2017) is a work of young adult fiction by Katherine Applegate. Directly addressing the bigotry and Islamophobia of the Trump era, the novel tackles the polarized American political climate by praising the value of diversity, tolerance, and compassion. Plot SummaryThis book’s narrator is a 216-year-old northern oak tree named Red. Red is a dioecious tree who has both male and female characteristics, so refers to themself with the pronoun “they.” The story takes place... Read Wishtree Summary

Published in 1991, the adventure biography Woodsong recounts novelist Gary Paulsen’s experiences as a dogsled driver, including his participation in the Iditarod race across Alaska. He describes the hard-won lessons he learns, the strange and wondrous things he witnesses, and the love and admiration he feels for the dogs he trains with. Three-time Newbury Honor winner Paulsen wrote more than 200 works, most of them for middle-grade and young adult readers. His books often tell... Read Woodsong Summary

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