Australia
Canada & US
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
中文
The magic and wisdom of animal protagonists
Amanda Laduc, author of The Centaur's Wife and Wild Life, shares her favourite animal protagonists and the books that brought them the life.
Animals who talk—they’re inescapable. From Aesop’s Fables through to our favourite Disney sidekicks, from Animal Farm through to Life of Pi, so many of the stories we all know and love let us peek into the minds of our furry, four-legged friends, giving us a glimpse of a world that’s at once more magical and yet every bit as wondrous as our own.
Who among us wouldn’t benefit from Charlotte’s wisdom now and again—not to mention her wondrous webs?
Feeling like you’re in the mood for some animal magic and wisdom? Read on for suggested books that feature some of my favourite animal protagonists. Because let’s face it—sometimes a glimpse into another world is exactly what’s needed to keep loving this one!
The Bees
Flora 717 is not your average narrator—she’s much more bee-utiful than most. (See what I did there?) Her journey from the lowest part of her hive to the world beyond is thrilling and expansive—the kind of story that soars on wings. Fly with Flora, today!
View eBook
What We Fed to the Manticore
Grief and wonder and danger jostle for space—and exist, at times, hand in hand—in this extraordinary collection of stories that was a finalist for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Each of the nine stories in this book features an animal narrator—dogs! Pigeons! Donkeys! More!—ruminating on the dazzling nature of our wild, terrifying, and terrifyingly beautiful world. You’ll never look at the ground beneath your feet quite the same way again after this.
View eBook
Pebble & Dove
Lauren and Dove are a mother-daughter duo with the mother of all problems—grief around a woman who left them both when they needed her the most. Enter Pebble, a manatee living in an old abandoned aquarium in Florida--an animal with a desperate need of her own and an unlikely ability to bring mother and teenaged daughter together. Amy Jones draws all of the disparate threads of her novel together with enough grace and love to cover all animals—sea-dwelling, land-bound, and otherwise—that cavort through the pages of this book.
View eBook
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
It’s been some time since St. Lucy’s came out, but this book will forever have a special place in my heart for the sheer love of imagination it displays. Here we have wolf girls and families who wrestle alligators, girls who sail away on crab shells and much more. This is a book that taught me there really was nowhere an imagination couldn’t go.
View eBook
The White Bone
You know what this world sorely needs? More elephant wisdom. Enter Mud, the captivating narrator of Barbara Gowdy’s unforgettable novel The White Bone. Magical, mythical, and all-too-familiar even in her strangeness, Mud is one animal protagonist you won’t soon forget.
View eBookThe Tortoise’s Tale
Mark your calendars for this one! Releasing in November 2025, The Tortoise’s Tale follows life through the eyes of a giant tortoise named Magic, who has a gift for both observation and jazz. What’s not to love about that?
View eBookAMANDA LEDUC is a disabled writer and author of fiction and nonfiction titles including The Centaur's Wife, The Miracles of Ordinary Men, and Wild Life. Her essays and stories have appeared across Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia, and she speaks regularly across North America on accessibility and the role of disability in storytelling. She holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews. Amanda has cerebral palsy and presently makes her home in Hamilton, Ontario, where she lives with a very lovable dog named Sitka, who once ate and then peed on a manuscript. (Everyone’s a critic, it seems.)
Wild Life
In 19th-century Siberia, Josiah is exiled for his spiritual connection to animals, but after being saved by hyenas, he founds a religion based on their divine speech. These hyenas, Barbara and Kendrith, aren't convinced of Josiah's interpretation but transform the lives of those they encounter. As Josiah's church grows, more animals gain the ability to speak, leading to a mass exodus from captivity. This event forces humanity to confront their suppressed wildness, blurring the lines between humans and animals in a bittersweet conclusion.
View eBook