22
Animal Stories
Keith Barker
The predominance of animals in children’s books comes as no surprise when looking at
the way Western civilisations treat both children and animals. Countries in other parts
of the world take a far less sentimental attitude towards both groups, as did pre-
industrial revolution Britain and Europe. Indeed, de Mause (1976:274, 280) has
suggested that not only did pet animals roam freely throughout early European
dwellings, providing a health hazard for crawling infants, but that bestiality was also
rife. However, in recent centuries animals and children have been linked together in
terms of their privileged and protected position in the culture so inextricably that since
the nineteenth century children’s books have strongly featured animal characters either
exhibiting strong human characteristics or showing empathy for such traits.
One of the earliest works adopted by children uses animals to convey to young readers
messages about life. Whether Aesop, the Greek slave who lived at around 550 BC on
Sanos, was the author of the fables that bear his name is doubtful; however, what is not
in any doubt is the way they have been seen from the earliest printed version in English
(translated and printed by Caxton in 1484) to the present day. Originally they were not
intended for children but Caxton and further adapters have geared them towards a child
audience. Roger L’Estrange, in his comprehensive collection of 1692, wrote that they
were produced for the ‘hearing, learning and telling of little stories’ while John Newbery
included four of the fables in his first book for children in 1744.
Another Newbery publication, The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765), also
features animal characters as prominent forces in the story. Jumper the dog, Ralph the
raven, Tippy the lark and Willy the lamb help Mrs Margery when she takes on the role of
village postmistress.
Traditional rhymes also continued to be dominated by animal characters, who
sometimes displayed human characteristics but sometimes remained resolutely
animals. Tucker says that they
may sometimes be dressed in the height of fashion, like the three young rats with
black, felt hats, or else come closer to the birds or beasts of everyday life, passively
awaiting the next milking, or laying eggs to order. Cats and dogs are equally
adaptable, wearing petticoats, playing the fiddle and visiting the queen on one
page, and frightening mice, sipping milk or lying quietly by the fire on the next.
Tucker 1981:44