What makes for a truly great animal story? Since reading more adult nonfiction, including the works of Alexandra Horowitz, who specializes in dog cognition, I’ve become convinced that the best animal tales have one thing in common: an understanding of the umwelt, or how a creature makes sense of the world. To a human, for instance, a nearby cat is a welcome companion, but to a mouse, it’s a dire threat. Although works of fiction with animal characters often take liberties with reality (rodents probably don’t understand English; rabbits almost certainly don’t wear adorable blue jackets), the strongest ones convey what the world feels like from that creature’s perspective. These recently published middle-grade novels will push readers to imagine life from another point of view, help them cultivate empathy, and perhaps encourage them to learn more about the wildlife spotlighted.
Remy Lai’s graphic novel Sunny the Shark (Henry Holt, Aug. 9) follows an upbeat oceanic whitetip as she gets tangled in a discarded plastic ring—a predicament that prevents her from hunting. With her toothy smile, our heroine cuts an adorable figure, but Lai also folds in information on shark behavior and the devastating effects of pollution on marine life. Her cartoon illustrations temper this at-times harrowing tale; readers will genuinely fear for Sunny as she grows weaker, and they’ll be spurred to help make the ocean a safer place for wildlife like her.
Carlie Sorosiak’s Always, Clementine (Walker US/Candlewick, Sept. 6) centers on a superintelligent lab mouse who finds herself living with two humans who resolve to keep her safe from scientists who want to dissect her. Clementine’s cleverness is apparent throughout this funny, quirky narrative, but she’s also a little rodent attempting to make her way through an intimidating world, and her determination to survive despite the odds will resonate deeply.
Lynne Rae Perkins’ Violet and Jobie in the Wild (Greenwillow Books, Sept. 13) begins with a charming premise: What if the mice that infest our houses were just as daunted as we are by the prospect of life in the great outdoors? Trapped and released in the woods by the human inhabitants of their previous home, Violet and her brother Jobie carve out new lives, armed only with knowledge gleaned from watching episodes of Nature Magnificent. Immersing readers in a world where almost everything, from birds of prey to foxes, is a potential peril, Perkins has crafted both a captivating adventure and a tender tale of found family and friendship.
Set in 1963, C.C. Harrington’s Wildoak (Scholastic, Sept. 20), illustrated by Diana Sudyka, alternates perspectives between Maggie, a girl sent to live with her grandfather, and Rumpus, a young snow leopard bought as a pet, then abandoned in a Cornish forest. Both feel woefully out of place—Maggie is tormented by her stern father’s anger at her stutter—but find kinship together. Harrington’s depiction of these wild, wondrous woods is masterful, and she deftly illustrates how her two very different protagonists perceive it.
In Guojing’s The Flamingo (Random House Studio, Sept. 27), a Chinese grandmother tells her visiting grandchild the story of the flamingo she reared as a young girl. This sumptuous, nearly wordless graphic novel makes inspired use of color as it moves between past and present. As the flamingo realizes it’s time to migrate, its sorrow at leaving its friend is palpable—and parallels the pain experienced in the present as the grandchild prepares to return home. Though there’s a hint of magic in this tale, the emotions felt by all the characters, human and animal, are realistic and incredibly relatable.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
