Children's Realistic Animal Fiction of North America

This book evaluates animal rights and environmental ethics messages in children's realistic animal fiction. It includes a history of the genre and considers such authors as Jack London, Fred Gipson, Marguerite Henry, Will James, Jim Kjelgaard, and many more. A discussion of nature "fakery" is included. Major chapters focus on relationships between humans and animals, the representation of animal thinking and sentience; and perceptions of predators and prey (or "bad" and "good") animals in the novels. This is a book of literary criticism about the books we read and loved as children. This was a dissertation for the University of Oregon and displayed an entirely new way of looking at children's literature by including animal rights and environmental ethics philosophies as approaches to understanding the authors' intents.