Great Animal Stories Make Good Reads and Great Gifts

An aunt fed my animal addition with a book every Christmas. Now I’m a book addict, too. Here are some curated reading picks for animal lovers on your gift list. Or for your enjoyment!

As a kid on Christmas morning, I’d jump out of bed, run to the living room, and start feeling up the presents under the tree that had a likely size and shape. And a name tag indicating it was for ME. 😊

I searched eagerly for the gift that felt right. Felt like a book. A book about horses. Or dogs. Or animal fables. Or anything animal.

Aunt Marge never let me down.

Aunt Marge’s school days ended when she finished grammar school and went to work to help her family.

But her education never ended. She had a voracious appetite for reading, fed by the local library. She encouraged a reading habit in all her nieces and nephews by gifting a book to each one every Christmas.

I offer some classic and recent reads from horses to hawks, dogs to wild things, as great gift possibilities and for your reading enjoyment. I follow several of these authors and enjoy reading their new releases.

There are always more good stories to read and new things to learn! Here are some suggestions.

Stories About Human-Animal Bonds

A Kinship With All Life by J. Allen Boone is a classic story about one man’s deep dive into understanding and bonding with animals when he became the dog sitter for the 1920’s canine movie star, Strongheart. The lessons he learns from this famous German Shepherd lead to curious interactions with Freddie the Fly.  

I strongly recommend this story to anyone curious about exploring animal communication. It’s a short read and the book that got me started on that exploration.

Animals In Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson details how Grandin turned autism into an asset that helped her become an internationally known animal behaviorist and designer of livestock handling systems that meet the needs of animals. Read it and come away with a deeper understanding of how shifts in our human mindset can benefit the animals in our lives.

Grandin’s book Animals Make Us Human, Creating the Best Life for Animals, offers a perspective on how animals can help people become better humans. Grandon is one of the authors I follow.

The Book of Beasties, Your A-Z Guide to the Illuminating Wisdom of Spirit Animals by Sarah Bamford Seidelmann offers an imaginative exploration of how animals serve as teachers and healers in our lives. Riffing on 26 different beasties, the author describes how creatures that come to our attention offer perspectives and advice to help us be better human creatures.

The book’s illustrations offer a touch of whimsy that makes it a joy to read.

Angel Animals, Divine Messengers of Miracles by Allen and Linda Anderson is a collection of feel-good stories about animals that can be read at random as easily as cover to cover. Just thumb through to any story that grabs your fancy and start reading. Each tale ends with a suggested meditation to help you personalize the story based on your own experiences.

The Andersons have penned several story collections about dogs, cats, horses, horses and birds. This one is my particular fave but all make great gifts.

Stories About Wild Things

Blossom, The Wild Ambassador of Tewksbury by Anna Carner details how the author used her paramedic skills to rescue a starving fawn. And how Blossom stayed in her life to return the favor by helping Anna heal from childhood trauma. Kind of a cross-species romance read. And a true story about the only wild creature ever nominated for Purina’s Pet-of-the-Year award and featured in National Geographic’s “The Private Life of Deer.”

(Disclainer: I first learned about Blossom when Anna and I worked on a marketing project.)

H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald is a fascinating peek into the world of falconry. Macdonald’s fascination with the goshawks in the English countryside began when she was twelve. It sustained her through grief when her father died. And she provides an inside look at this unique relationship between man and bird.

Masterful storytelling about a unique collaboration between a bird and a human.

The Elephant Whisperer, My Life with the Herd in the African Wild by Lawrence Anthony chronicles the adventures at Thula Thula, his 5,000-acre preserve in Zululand, when he welcomes a herd of wild elephants to save them from poachers. Big animals pose big questions. This is an animal rescue story unlike any other you’ve read.

Fascinating peek into the mind of an exotic species and the mind of a human who learned how to think like them.

Stories About Animals Who Live On Farms

The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery is a vicarious romp through her embrace of pig as pet. As Christopher Hogwood grew from a flat-faced piglet into a 750-pound barrow (meaning he lost his jewels) neighborhood chick magnet. Romp with her through her town as she collects slops for her voracious pet, weaving pig facts with entertaining stories about raising and living with this highly intelligent animal.

I recently read her Birdology where I learned that birds of descendants of dinosaurs. Think about that next time you put up a bird feeder. An author I folow.

The Perfect Horse, The Daring U.S. Mission to Recue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis by Elizabth Letts is more than just non-fiction horse story. Letts skillfully builds dramatic tension as she skips  from country to country chronically the World War II efforts of the American miliary to keep the famed Lippizans of Austria out of Hitler’s clutches. Recipients, horsey or not, who love fiction thrillers will love this book.

I also recommend The Eighty Dollar Champion and The Ride of Her Life as other Lett’s horse books that will please history buffs on your gift list. Another animal author I follow.

Stories About Pets

Piglet, The Unexpected Story of a Deaf Blind Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro, DVM is not about a pig. And spoiler alert–Piglet is a canine foster fail. When a Georgia rescue contact asked for Shapiro for help placing a tiny, weeks-old deaf, blind, and hairless puppy, Shapiro took in the little dog whose flattish puppy face resembled that of a baby pig. And he never left.

This is a charming story about a disabled dog who, with assistance from Shapiro, her family and friends, uses his “pink power” to advocate for animal welfare at conferences and to teach school children to create a Piglet Mindset about disabilities.

Dewey, The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter is the tale of a kitten dumped in the book return slot at the library in the small town of Spencer, Ohio. Dewey Readmore Books (just Dewey to his friends) went on to become world famous, thanks to the librarian author who penned his biography. Dewey read the moods of library patrons and gave them what they needed. His antics entertained the staff and his magnetic personality drew more readers to the library.

Great choice for a warm-hearted read on a cold winter’s night.

A Dog’s Purpose, A Novel for Humans by Bruce Cameron follows a fictional dog full circle through multiple lifetimes back to the boy he loves. Cameron channels the dog’s thoughts as he travels through multiple lifetimes. You’ll laugh, cry, and be captivated by this story about a dog, a boy, and remarkable coincidences.

Cameron weaves a good yarn and A Dog’s Purpose is just the first in a string of books this one. Another author I follow.

Bad Dog (A Love Story) by Martin Kahn combines humor and pathos in his memoir about how his difficult Bernese Mountain Dog, Hola, forced him to face his destructive relationship with alcohol and embrace sobriety. I won’t spoil the ending by telling you how she exercised her canine superpowers to train her human.

The human-dog dialog throughout the book will keep you chuckling and the ending will have you what the animals that are in your life have come to teach you.

Bookstores and libraries are full of great animal tales. Seek them out, enjoy the stories, and ponder the way animals function almost invisibly in our lives as teachers and healers as well as beloved and comforting companions.

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