Books about Animals - Recommendatioms

[FoxyDee]

Thanks @FoxyDee - meant to get back to you sooner but its been a busy week Love Gerald Durrell! Grew up on these - my favourite was My Family and Other Animals. My dad used to read them to me.

I didn't know about Bobek though, will check him out!

Ahh, that is a great collection.

 

[Villanelle]

Thank you for the recommendations everyone! I will edit the first post to write up some lists by genre with all the suggestions gathered here.

I remembered a few more as well:


When Women Were Dragons - tentative link to wildlife! Excellent contemporary American lit. Genre-bending fantasy and political/human drama. Explores gender identity in a really interesting way. Absolutely loved it.

The Elephant Whisperer - non fiction but great storytelling about an African Elephant herd in South Africa and how their mental health had suffered from their past experiences, and how they improved with love and attentive care in their new home.

The soul of an octopus - non-fiction by a biologist learning about the inner world of an enigmatic octopus, and what this means for the future of zoological biology and animal behaviour research. Brilliant take down of the outdated concept of 'anthropomorphism' and how this paradigm has stunted Western science.


More children's / young adult classics:
White fang
Black beauty
Charlotte's web
The call of the wild
Old yeller
The animals of farthing wood (childhood favourite)
Redwall (series - another favourite)

 

[FlameWizard492]

Believe it or not, today I just had a really good idea for a book/series that involves dangerous animals/beasts with some conservation elements, but I don’t want to reveal too much because my idea might get stolen.

 

[Orkan]

Believe it or not, today I just had a really good idea for a book/series that involves dangerous animals/beasts with some conservation elements, but I don’t want to reveal too much because my idea might get stolen.

sounds like that back to the outback movie I saw an ad for on Netflix

 

[FlameWizard492]

sounds like that back to the outback movie I saw an ad for on Netflix

The creatures in my story are fictional. Does that make any difference?

 

[Orkan]

The creatures in my story are fictional. Does that make any difference?

Oh ok I see. Yeah, the ones in the movie were like snakes and stuff from a zoo escaping

 

[DarthQuell]

Believe it or not, today I just had a really good idea for a book/series that involves dangerous animals/beasts with some conservation elements, but I don’t want to reveal too much because my idea might get stolen.

Sounds like Michael Crichton's The Lost World, actually.
But write it down. Right down your ideas somewhere, don't lose them. I'm not the best story writer, but I have a huge imagination ever since I was a little kid, so I'm always making up stories in my head, scenarios, that kinda thing.

I'm currently writing a novella that is actually based off of Jurassic Park, but with my own twists and even some of my own theories on extinct animal life. But if I hadn't written down my ideas beforehand, I wouldn't be writing it now. So, gopher (go for) it. Put all your crazy thoughts, and put them together

 

[FlameWizard492]

Sounds like Michael Crichton's The Lost World, actually.

Eh, not quite. The beasts aren’t exactly hidden on an island somewhere. They’re just a regular part of life around the world in my story.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

This isn't really within the spirit of this thread because it's basically just a scientific picture book, but I am absolutely obsessed with this thick, pricy book I purchased earlier this year called All the Mammals of the World. True to its title, it features an illustration of every known mammal species (and many subspecies) as of the time of publication. Over 6500 illustrations. It's incredible just being able to flip through it and see everything the class has to offer. Something new jumps out at me and sticks with me every time.

There's also a 9-volume version that features lengthy writeups as well, but that one's far more of a commitment, both price- and space-wise. It's on my mental wishlist, though.

There's also a sister book that does the same for birds that I also own, but birds just don't strike me quite the same way as mammals. Still super worth it if you're even remotely into birds imo.

 

[FlameWizard492]

I just remembered another one from my childhood! I remember a book called The Great Animal Search, which was sort of like a “Where’s Waldo.” Basically, on each page, there’s a large picture that’s crowded with illustrated animals all over it. There’s also a list of animals on each page, and there’s a certain number of each animal in each picture. For example, on the Arctic page, it would say something like “find four polar bears,” and then you would. I also remember having two similar books called The Great Undersea Search and The Great Dinosaur Search. It would be a great gift if you have children or you know a child that would like it.

 

[Cynogale bennettii II]

I just remembered another one from my childhood! I remember a book called The Great Animal Search, which was sort of like a “Where’s Waldo.” Basically, on each page, there’s a large picture that’s crowded with illustrated animals all over it. There’s also a list of animals on each page, and there’s a certain number of each animal in each picture. For example, on the Arctic page, it would say something like “find four polar bears,” and then you would. I also remember having two similar books called The Great Undersea Search and The Great Dinosaur Search. It would be a great gift if you have children or you know a child that would like it.

I had a couple of those books, in what I think may have been a combination title - it was called The Great Wildlife Search, and it combined the Animal Search and Undersea Search books as well as The Big Bug Search. Used to spend hours looking through that book.

 

[Orkan]

I just remembered another one from my childhood! I remember a book called The Great Animal Search, which was sort of like a “Where’s Waldo.” Basically, on each page, there’s a large picture that’s crowded with illustrated animals all over it. There’s also a list of animals on each page, and there’s a certain number of each animal in each picture. For example, on the Arctic page, it would say something like “find four polar bears,” and then you would. I also remember having two similar books called The Great Undersea Search and The Great Dinosaur Search. It would be a great gift if you have children or you know a child that would like it.

I had one like 100 things to find under the sea or something. I spent hours on it

 

[DarthQuell]

The Great Dinosaur Search

I still have my copy