Vol. 37, No. 3
September 2007

BEES, BUTTERFLIES, CATS, DOGS

Americans are first in the world when it comes to being animal lovers, and the recent wildly successful Marley and Me (RC 61561) has spurred interest in reading about other pets.  Fortunately, the Library has a nice selection of titles that will fill the bill.

Willie Morris, who celebrated his boyhood pet in My Dog Skip (RC 41612), tells how he overcame his fear of cats in My Cat Spit McGee (RC 52219).  Christopher Wren, a New York Times correspondent, has traveled around the globe with his family, which includes Henrietta, a part Siamese cat.  He tells Henrietta’s story in The Cat Who Covered the World (RC 53178).  In Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories (RC 54616), NPR correspondent Daniel Pinkwater relates anecdotes – bizarre, outlandish and poignant - about the dogs in his life.  Author Jon Katz bought a small farm in upstate New York, partly as a training exercise for his three border collies.  He recounts a season on the farm in The Dogs of Bedlam Farm (RC 62296).  The Library also has collections of stories that tell of dogs’ feats and adventures, including Amazing But True Dog Stories (AZC 2748) and Dog is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World’s Oldest Friendship (RC 57155).

If there is a troublesome dog in your life you might try Cesar’s Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems (RC 62405) by TV personality Cesar Millan or The Dog Listeners: A Noted Expert Tells You How to Communicate with your Dog for Willing Cooperation (RC 56418) by Jan Fennell.

In The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood (RC 63822), Sy Montgomery describes the 750 pound pet pig that became a celebrity hog and entertained her and her husband for many years.

We have books on famous horses, notably Seabiscuit, The True Story of Three Men, a Great Racehorse, and the Will to Win  (RC 51968) and Man o’ War: A Legend like Lightning (RC 63399) as well as a collection of horse stories called The Greatest Horse Stories Ever Told (RC 58734).

We also have what we’ll call ‘critter books’ that cover a wide range of interests from honeybees to grizzly bears.  Robbing the Bees (RC 62617) explores the lore and natural history of bees and their honey.  The Lady and the Panda (RC 60516) tells the story of a bohemian Manhattan socialite who went to China in 1936 to bring a giant panda back to America, and journalist Shana Alexander chronicles her growing interest in elephants in The Astonishing Elephant (RC 51923).   In Owls Aren’t Wise and Bats Aren’t Blind (RC 51666), author Warner Shedd debunks our favorite illusions about wildlife.  Robert Pyle recounts tracking the annual monarch butterfly migration from British Columbia to Mexico in Chasing Monarchs: Migrating With the Butterflies of Passage (RC 50575).  Robert Sapolsky, who spent twenty years studying baboons in East Africa, gives a humorous account of his adventures in A Primate’s Memoir (RC 53256).

Collections of anecdotes about a variety of animals, tame and not, can be found in White House Pets (RC 61550) by Margaret Truman, A Bevy of Beasts (RC 61226) by Gerald Durrell, and the re-issued and still wonderful memoirs of English veterinarian James Herriot, All Things Wise and Wonderful (RC 53147), All Creatures Great and Small (RC 53926), and The Lord God Made Them All (RC 54019).

 

Director: Linda Montgomery and Editor Catherine Coughlin.

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