5 Books to Remember Wildlife Awareness MonthOctober 15, 2014

The Wildlife Awareness Month is about the plight of Australia's native fauna. But there's more to this than feeling sorry for some kangaroos, koalas, and wombats.

There are many books on Animal fiction, but only a handful on knowing the impact that humans have on the wildlife. We should be grateful to these authors, but it will be better to read their works once more. Here they are:

"Black Beauty" (1877) by Anna Sewell. Horace Bushnell's "Essay on Animals" is the author's inspiration for her only novel, about a handsome black horse who learns to be kind, respectful, and sympathetic to his human owners. Some treat him the same way, while others are cruel. But Black Beauty tries his best. The book is about the plight of working horses in Great Britain during the 19th century, but the moral lesson applies to people as well.

"Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds" (1960) by Joy Adamson. Friederike Victoria Gessner, a naturalist, never thought that her conservation efforts would make the whole world notice. In 1956, she lived in Kenya with George Adamson, a game warden of the National Frontier District. He shot a lioness after charging him and the other warden, unaware that she was only protecting her three cubs. The couple decided to raise the trio, naming them Big One, Lustica, and Elsa respectively. George and Elsa sent Big One and Lustica to a zoo in Rotterdam when they could no longer handled them. But not Elsa. Joy thought of returning her to the wild, so the couple taught her to survive on her own. It wasn't easy, but they succeeded. When Elsa had her own cubs, she showed them to George and Elsa. (They were over the moon.)

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" (1970) by Roald Dahl. It's about a clever fox who steals livestock owned by three wicked farmers. Not that this furry animal is better, but he only wants to provide food for his wife and four children. Dahl's brand of humour makes this an entertaining tale, espousing the virtues of responsibility, resourcefulness, and generosity. You'll get lost for a while, though.

"The Jungle Book" (1894) by Rudyard Kipling. Talking animals are the stars of this short story series, inspired by Kipling's six-year tenure in India. "Mowgli's Brothers", which Disney adapted to the big screen, is the most popular. The lessons (for humans and animals alike) are loud and clear.

"The Yearling" (1938) by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Central Florida in the 1870s is a backwood. The capricious nature didn't affect Penny and Ora Baxter at all. Then Penny is bitten by a rattlesnake, killing a deer to save himself. (The deer's liver is used to extract the snake's poison.) She leaves behind a doe, which the family adopts. Jody, the couple's young son, takes a liking to the mammal. He calls him Flag. They become close. But the troublesome deer will raise tension in the household.

This is a start. It's your turn to add some titles to the list.

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