James Herriot is unparalleled when it comes to stories of domesticated animals -- whether dogs and cats in homes or various farm animals -- and his keen observations and clear love and respect for animals.

While the stories in James Herriot's Treasury for Children are fictional, all of them feel to me as if they easily could be true, and no doubt he drew heavily on his veterinary experiences in describing these unique animals and their amusing and tender escapades. 

Herriot manages to capture the human-animal bond, even with farm animals, evoking compassion, joy, and sometimes sadness, without sentimentalizing or emotionally manipulating the reader.

I grew up reading "Oscar, Cat-about-Town" and "The Christmas Day Kitten," both of which are included here, and was also introduced to some new favorites, such as "Blossom Comes Home" and "Smudge, the Little Lost Lamb." The illustrations perfectly capture the animals, people, and the views of the beautiful British countryside.

Because Herriot is British and uses some words that might be unfamiliar to American children (or perhaps it's a generational thing as well), and at times can be a bit wordy, some of these stories will probably lose the interest of preschoolers. But it's worth hanging on and trying them again later, because the best animal stories are really for all ages and have no need to be written off as "for little kids."

Scrounged From: HomeschoolClassifieds.com (Sonlight Core A)

Format: Hardcover
Author: James Herriot
Illustrators: Ruth Brown, Peter Barrett
Pages: 260
Content Advisory: As noted, a few stories are a bit sad.

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Perhaps I'm biased since I already agree with the premise of this book, but lions have always been one of my favorite animals and are totally the "king of beasts," so I enjoyed 10 Reasons to Love ... a Lion, and the way it introduces lions' characteristics, habitat, and lifestyle. 

It's a short, informational read, and each double-page illustration includes some other animals and plants that are also found on the African savannah.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author: Catherine Barr
Illustrator: Hanako Clulow
Pages: 24
Content Advisory: None

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Caps for Sale is such a fun story, and I can see why it's still a classic even after 75+ years. I don't remember reading it as a child, but even as an adult I can find amusement in it and enjoy reading it to my children even after many repetitions.

I think one of the story's strengths is its simplicity -- there is a good blend of repetition and mystery throughout. The peddler seems like a sincere, unassuming fellow, and the way the whole situation plays out with his missing caps is made even better by the way that it appears his outwitting the monkeys might have been just an accident. And when it's all over he doesn't pat himself on the back... he simply picks up his caps and gets back to work. 

This is also a great book to read to groups (which is where I first encountered it) because that makes it all the more fun when kids get to imitate the motions of the monkeys. "Monkey see, monkey do!"

Scrounged From: A Christmas present

Format: Hardcover
Author/Illustrator: Esphyr Slobodkina
Pages: 48
Content Advisory: None

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We enjoyed reading another installment from the Messner/Neal duo, after reading Over and Under the Snow (see my review here). Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt includes beautiful, colorful artwork and tells the story of some of the things that go on in a garden over the course of a year. The text is spare and fairly poetic, and communicates facts about bugs, plants, and the food chain without a lot of technical terms. 

The book follows a girl and her Nana as they haul off dead plants and sow seeds in the spring, watch the vegetables ripen in the summer, and harvest and put the garden "to bed" in the autumn, and soon it rests under a blanket of snow for the winter. We're also introduced to some of the creatures that live in gardens: ladybugs, earth worms, pill bugs, and even garter snakes.

It's a great reminder that there's a lot going on in one little garden, and it's all interconnected -- even down in the dirt where we don't often see it.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Kate Messner
Illustrator: Christopher Silas Neal
Pages: 52
Content Advisory: None

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Little Kids First Big Book of Animals is a great book from National Geographic that introduces kids to many different kinds of animals all over the world. The book organizes the animals by the type of environment they live in: grasslands, the desert, the sea, forests and jungles, and the arctic.

Each section covers several animals (some more than others), with one or two double pages devoted to each animal. There are lots of great photographs, simple text, and an emphasis on the relationship between parents and baby animals. Some of the animals included are: snakes, giraffes, snowy owls, zebras, spiders, desert jerboas, penguins, raccoons, gorillas, koalas, dolphins, and more. 

This book can be read all at once if the child's attention span is long enough, but could also be read in sections for use in a science or geography unit. My five-year-old son says about it:

"It's nice and long and I like to sit and read it. It has beavers in it. They chop up wood to make their dam. The animal I like the most is an octopus. It has a siphon under it that goes into the water with it."

Scrounged From: Books-a-Million

Format: Hardcover
Author: Catherine D. Hughes
Pages: 128
Content Advisory: None

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