BBC Wildlife - UK (2019-12)

Talking

point

Snail & Whale: Magic Light/BBC; The Tiger

Who

Came

toTea:

Kerr-Knea

eProduct

ons

Ltd./HarperCo

ns

Pub

shers

Ltd

December 2019

several ways, from teaching children to

communicate, to making them familiar

with the animal world at a very young

age. While a lot of children will have

cats, dogs, hamsters or goldfish in their

homes, there are precious few who have a

giraffe, camel, duck-billed platypus or

T. rex kicking around.

S

o in terms of beginning to show

children that there’s a wider world

ofwildlifeoutthere– onethey’ll

eventuallyencounterforrealinthe

country,onfarmsandatthezoo

• it’sinvaluable.Thatwonderfulmoment
  whenyourlittledarlingseesa sheepina
  fieldforthefirsttime,points,laughsand
  squeals“Shee!Shee!Baabaa!”usually
  occursonlybecausethey’vebeenseeing
  themformonthsinbooks.
  Beyondtheeducationalbenefits,using
  animalsascharacterscanalsoallowauthors
  totacklesubjectsorsituationsthatmight
  feeltoochallengingif humanswereused.
  InJudithKerr’sGoodbyeMog, for
  instance,thetitularfelineshufflesoffthis
  mortalcoil,leavingherhumansbroken-

hearted.Tacklingthesubjectofthedeath

ofa lovedonewouldlikelybea bittoo

muchfortheaveragefive-year-oldtohandle

hadit beenGrandadbeingtakentothe

vettobeputtosleep.A belovedanimal

charactergoingthroughthatoffersatleast

somedistancefromtheharshrealitiesof

loss,althoughit’sstilla toughread.I wasin

absolutebitswhenI readit andI was30.

Similarly,WatershipDowndealswith

death,amongotherthemes.Andwhether

tacklingreligion,toleranceofthose

differentfromyourself(Charlotte’sWeb, for

example),orhighlightingenvironmental

In applying human

traits to certain animals,

perhaps we do them

a disservice, or at least

mislead small readers.

concerns (The Animals of Farthing Wood),

these stories can engage young minds

without the children feeling preached to.

Animal fiction as a stealth delivery

system for big thematic messages – a good

or bad thing? That very much depends on

the message being delivered and the views

of those (or at least the parents of those)

it’s being delivered to. If you’re a wicked

developer intent on paving over some

beautiful woodland, you probably hate

The Animals of Farthing Wood!

All this said, it would, of course, be

wrong to deny there’s a commercial aspect

Julia Donaldson and

Axel Scheer’s 2003

tale of a globe-trotting

gastropod (left) has

now been made into

an animated film.