Margaret Sadler | Editor-in-Chief , news & views

As a teacher-librarian I watched children grasp ideas from books like they ’ d grasp a stuffed animal . I always loved reading A . A . Milne , Beatrix Potter , and Kenneth Grahame to anyone who would crawl up and sit close — so much animal wisdom to share .

Real-life donkeys are humble beasts and , in their hee-haw , do seem to whine and sigh . A . A . Milne captures that so perfectly in Eeyore . Gloomy Eeyore may be tiresome at times but is always accepted and included by the other residents of the Hundred Acre Wood . Eeyore spends much time in deep thought , less able than his friends to jump up and head out on an adventure . He ’ s the one who is always unsure about the prospects , pessimistic about the outcome , unimpressed even with a success . Yet even he would have to admit that

his life is made richer by these experiences . As a friend of mine says , “ If you ’ re going to be anxious , you might as well be anxious in an interesting place .”

Reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit taught us to listen to our mother while significantly improving our vocabulary . Where else would we have learned that lettuce was soporific ? Peter tested the boundaries , risked danger for a reward , but was always a wild rabbit . He was as cute as the hares born in the woods behind our house and equally destructive to the nearest garden . Now ,

Mr . McGregor and I have more in common !

Grahame ’ s Toad may have encouraged us to use our own common sense — more than Toad ever mastered — while at the same time recognizing the merits of kindness and loyalty to friends . Toad was a bit too arrogant , too conceited to be easily imagined as a friend , and yet Mole and Rat do befriend him and enter into adventures with him . In the end , Toad returns their loyalty .

Animals as symbols , as standins , can teach us our manners and allow us to test our values . As readers grow , more animals emerge to display familiar human characteristics from which to learn . From Wilbur in Charlotte ’ s Web and Napoleon in Animal Farm , from Tigger in The House at Pooh Corner to Richard Parker in The Life of Pi , from de Brunhoff ’ s Babar to Mud in The White Bone , at any age , readers will find animals as guides to feelings and behaviour .

news & views WINTER 2020 | 9