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One of the earliest works by the American parodist, Guy Wetmore Carryl, these fables are adapted from Jean de La Fontaine’s original writings. The fables are written in verse, and are light-hearted re-tellings of fables from two centuries before, each ending with a moral and a pun. Among the more celebrated of the fables are The Persevering Tortoise and the Pretentious Hare, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, and The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven. (Summary written by Chriss)...

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Animals

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Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends. The character, sensibilities, and intellectual faculties of animals have always been a favourite study, and they are, perhaps, more strongly developed in the dog than in any other quadruped, from the circumstance of his being the constant companion of man. I am aware how much has been written on this subject, but having accumulated many original and interesting anecdotes of this faithful animal, I have attempted to enlarge the general stock of information respecting it. It is a pleasing task, arising from the conviction that the more the character of the dog is known, the better his treatment is likely to be, and the stronger the sympathy excited in his behalf. (Summary by Edward Jesse, extracted from the Preface)...

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Animals

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This comprehensive guide on dog-rearing looks at dogs as more than just pets - as people's best friends. The author describes each breed of dog in a detailed and systematic way, with complete notes on show-dogs. (Summary by Diana Majlinger)...

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Animals

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I have known, and loved, and studied many cats, but my knowledge of her (Pretty Lady, a cat) alone would convince me that cats love people--in their dignified, reserved way, and when they feel that their love is not wasted; that they reason, and that they seldom act from impulse. The thoughts of Helen Winslow, a thoughtful and articulate cat friend, about the cats in her life. (Summary by Karen Merline)...

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Animals

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White Fang (1906) was written as a companion to Jack London’s successful /call-of-the-wild-by-jack-london/ Call of the Wild (1903). It is the tale of a wild dog born in the wild and eventually brought to civilization. The story is viewed primarily through the eyes of its canine protagonist and deals with themes of morality and redemption. (Summary by Gord Mackenzie.)...

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Animals

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These whimsical short stories offer fanciful answers to a dozen of childhood's favorite why and how questions. With their generous sprinkling of nonsense words as well as a delightfully rhythmic storytelling feel, they seem to have been written to be read aloud. (summary by rachelellen)...

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Animals

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Beautiful Joe is a real dog, and Beautiful Joe is his real name. He belonged during the first part of his life to a cruel master, who mutilated him in the manner described in the story. He was rescued from him, and is now living in a happy home with pleasant surroundings, and enjoys a wide local celebrity. The character of Laura is drawn from life, and to the smallest detail is truthfully depicted. The Morris family has its counterparts in real life, and nearly all of the incidents of the story are founded on fact. (Summary by Marshall Saunders)...

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Animals

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volunteers bring you 12 recordings of Down the Bayou by Mary Ashley Townsend. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 27th, 2009.

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Animals, Nature, Poetry

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This is a story of a wild horse who many said could not be caught or broken, and the man who set out to prove them wrong. (Summary by Richard Kilmer)

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Adventure, Animals, Fiction, Westerns

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We are weary of witnessing the greed, selfishness and cruelty of civilized man toward the wild creatures of the earth. We are sick of tales of slaughter and pictures of carnage. It is time for a sweeping Reformation; and that is precisely what we now demand. -William Temple Hornaday...

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Nature, Animals

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This is the story of Buck, dog napped from sunny California to snowy Arctic during the Alaska gold rush. This deservedly famous book has been already recorded by and downloaded more than 100,000 times. Why, then, would anyone suggest another recording? Because this will be a Solo recording. One of the joys of is also a source of frustration for some listeners. That is, getting used to a narrator just in time for it to change! So, with apologies to Gordon, Kristin, Jean, and Miette, I am doing a solo. (Introduction by Tom Crawford) Please be aware this book contains graphic descriptions of unspeakable animal cruelty and violence. One of the joys of is also a source of frustration for some listeners. That is, getting used to a narrator just in time for it to change! So, with apologies to Gordon, Kristin, Jean, and Miette, I am doing a solo. (Introduction by Tom Crawford) Please be aware this book contains graphic descriptions of unspeakable animal cruelty and violence....

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Adventure, Animals

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The Goose Girl is a young and somewhat independent lady who, in fleeing from her lover with whom there had been a little tiff, became a paying guest at poultry farm in a quiet, out-of-the-way Sussex village, in the care of which she participates. From the author of Mother Carey's Chickens, The Bird's Christmas Carol, etc. (Summary from an original review)...

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Animals, Fiction, Teen/Young adult

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The value of the honey bee in cross pollinating the flowers of fruit trees makes it desirable that exact information be available concerning the actions of the bee when gathering and manipulating the pollen. The results recorded in this manuscript are also of value as studies in the behavior of the bee and will prove interesting and valuable to the bee keeper. The work here recorded was done by Dr. Casteel during the summers of 1911 and 1912. (Summary from introduction of manuscript)...

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Animals, Nature, Science, Essay/Short nonfiction, Instruction

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A great dog story, a well told tale--the naturalist and adventurer John Muir recounts how he and his companion, a dog named Stickeen, each, alone, confronted and conquered their fears of an icy Alaskan glacier in 1880. (Summary by Sue Anderson)...

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Animals, Essay/Short nonfiction

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The most careless reader can hardly fail to see that many of the Tales in this volume have the same groundwork as those with which he has been familiar from his earliest youth. They are Nursery Tales, in fact, of the days when there were tales in nurseries--old wives' fables, which have faded away before the light of gas and the power of steam. (Excerpt from Popular Tales from the Norse .)...

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Fairy tales, Animals, Myths/Legends

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This is a series of late-19th Century essays about Florida's flora & fauna written by a Massachusetts-based naturalist. (Summary by BellonaTimes) note: page 142 was read from Google Books as it was missing from the Gutenberg version....

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Animals, Essay/Short nonfiction, Nature, Science

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volunteers bring you eight different readings of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Cow, a weekly poetry project. (Summary by Annie Coleman)

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Animals, Poetry

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You can't fool old Mother Nature. No, Sir, you can't fool old Mother Nature, and it's of no use to try. The animals of the Green Meadows and Green Forest have little adventures while Grandfather Frog tells stories to Mother West Wind's children, the Merry Little Breezes. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)...

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Children, Animals, Nature

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Thornton Waldo Burgess (January 14, 1874 – June 5, 1965) was a conservationist and author of children's stories. He loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books. Many of his outdoor observations in nature were used as plots for his stories. In his first book, Old Mother West Wind, published in 1910, the reader meets many of the characters found in later books and stories. These characters include Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay, Bobby Raccoon, Joe Otter, Grandfather Frog, Billy Mink, Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle and of course, Old Mother West Wind and her Merry Little Breezes. Note to parents of very small children: in Chapter 15, little Tommy Trout gets eaten by a pickerel. (Summary by Wikipedia and Laurie Anne Walden.)...

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Children, Animals

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This short novel of Twain’s, from 1903, is told from the point of view of a loyal and beloved family pet. Themes of heroics, valor and heart-wrenching tenderness fill this work. The story is also filled with happy events as well as sad ones and is ultimately about what dogs are to us … best friends. A Dog’s Tale is quintessentially Twain. (Summary by Aaron Elliott)...

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Humor, Animals