Customer Reviews

The Animal Family

5 star:		(23)
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The day after I turned eight years old, my family moved into a house next door to the Golden Gate Valley Branch public library in San Francisco. I lived there for the next nine years exactly, moving out on my 17th birthday, and spent six days a week in the library next door (except for that brief period when I was banned for having 77 overdue books, and had to work off my fines before they'd let me back in). I'd have been in there seven days a week except they were closed on Sunday, which has ever since been my least favorite day of the week.

There were several children's librarians there during the years I lived next door, and they all took an interest in me as I was such a voracious reader. One gave me a copy of The Animal Family as a birthday present one year, and it immediately became my favorite book.

This story is so simply told, yet so beautiful that it has stayed with me all my life (30 years and counting since I first read it). Before the internet came along, I made it a point to locate used copies through the booksellers' network, and kept several copies on hand so that I could give them away whenever I met a special child who I thought would appreciate it.

You can read the other reviews if you want to know the story line... nothing can do it justice, however, except just reading the book. When you start, you won't want the story to end, and when it does, you will be sad that things the world - families and relationships - aren't really as beautiful, simple and loving as they are in the book.

This is an absolute MUST READ for any child. Or adult.

Even as a third grader I was an avid reader in search of great books. By passing the standard issue Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, I wanted the stuff dreams were made of. I remember discovering The Animal Family and being more intreagued by its presentation (a smallish book with wide margins on each page, crammed amid the large, brightly colored books of the children's library). But the opening page drew me in and kept me entranced for days. I re-read the book whenever I could find it in the school library-until it disappeared. Last night, my five-year-old daughter asked me to tell her a story. I searched the depths of my memory and began the story of a "lonely hunter who lived in a log cabin where the woods meet the beach. One night he heard a mermaid singing..." As my daugter's eyes grew wide while she watched my face, hoping, perhaps, to pull the words all the faster from my memory, I knew I needed to find the book that 30 years ago enthralled me with its uniqueness and then stayed in my memory long enough to promise the same for my daughter.

A librarian gave me a copy of The Animal Family as a birthday present one year, and it immediately became my favorite book.

This story is so simply told, yet so beautiful that it has stayed with me all my life (30 years and counting since I first read it). I keep several copies of it so that I can give them away whenever I meet a special child who I think would appreciate it.

You can read the other reviews if you want to know the story line... nothing can do it justice, however, except just reading it. When you start, you won't want the story to end, and when it does, you will be sad that the world - and relationships - aren't really as beautiful as they are in the book.

This is an absolute MUST READ for any child. Or adult.

Whenever this book comes back into print I buy at least 6 copies. I traditonally give this book to children I cherish on their 5th birthday; it must be read TO them, but they love it. (I have a first edition that was given to me when I turned 5.) I also give it to couples as a shower gift; "The Animal Family" is an excellent book about love and marriage. This book seems to go in and out of print frequently--buy it while you can!

I am so pleased to have found this book. I was never read this book nor had I ever heard of it. A pity! It is beautiful! Now that I have it, though, I will place it on the treasured books shelf as well as read it to my daughter. At least she will be exposed to this at an earlier age than I. Well-written children's literature is a blessing...for a child and for the child in the adult. I could subsist on this type of writing for the rest of my life.

Randall Jarrell (1914-65) is better known as a poet, although probably best known today for his poetry criticism. He also wrote a few children's book, most notably The Bat-Poet and The Animal Family, the later published the same year he died and winning the 1966 Newbery Honor. It is wonderfully illustrated by Maurice Sendak - of Where the Wild Things Are fame - in beautiful pen and ink drawings.

The story is a sort of fable along the lines of Hans Christian Andersen or Lewis Carroll, but updated with a 1960s message. It is about a lonely hunter who lives in a cabin by the sea who with time comes to gather around him a "family" of very different creatures, first a mermaid, and then a bear, lynx, and human boy. Each is an orphan whose parents have either died or somehow left the scene. They all are very different animals yet find comfort and eventually identity with one another. It is a story in the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, when songs such as Free to Be You and Me and Free to Be a Family resonated during a cultural revolution in which boundaries of class, race and, in this case, even species were being explored, when everyone was a "brother" and "sister".

My reading of the story in its 1960s context is only one interpretation, this is not a heavy handed preachy book by any measure, it is timeless in its message about toleration of differences, the power of love to overcome anything (including for a mermaid to live on land, in effect brining a happy ending to Hans Andersen's otherwise brutal The Little Mermaid), and in particular for those who seek out love and find it in the most un-expected places. It is a short book, easy to read, and poetically written. Over the past 40 years it has found a place close to the heart of many children and adults, I only wish I had discovered it sooner.

Every once in a while, an author manages to pull off a novel that carries with it the exact tone and magical feeling of a fairy tale. In the genre of The Last Unicorn and The Princess Bride, this beautiful story takes you into a peaceful world where a lonely hunter lives by the sea.
The story follows the hunter's efforts to make a family for himself, and to keep that family safe. I don't want to spoil any of the plot points, but I will say that this gentle fable is going to fill each reader with joy and contentment. The tale is universal, and is just perfect for a shared experience at bedtime.
The decorations by Maurice Sendak are also quite lovely, giving us detailed sketches of the landscapes that the hunter and his family occupy.

This is a beautiful story of a lone woodsman who befriends a curious mermaid before long they become a family of two. A bear is added to their family and the family continues to grow. The most pleasing aspect of this book is the characters. They are written without pretense, they are not contrived, they are real and wonderful. Upon conclusion of the first chapter my 3-year-old proclaimed, "this is my favorite story ever." My seven year old has enjoyed it for years - as have I.

This wonderful, dreamy story of a shipwrecked man, a mermaid, and the numerous additions to their family makes excellent bedtime reading for children. While I enjoyed hearing it that way thirty years ago, it is probably even more apt in today's world of blended families. Each chapter is essentially a complete story, which parents will appreciate, not having to battle over whether or not to pursue the cliffhanger into the next chapter. Maurice Sendak's ink drawings are suggestive, and scene-setting, rather than explicit renderings of the characters, inviting children to participate in imagining the world inhabited by the characters. Randall Jarrell describes the natural beauty and deep emotional connection between the characters as only a practiced poet can.

I was ecstatic to see this book, which I quickly recognized, offered on the first page. It is a treasured book in our faimly. It was first given to me by my grandmother in 1970, as is inscribed in the book, and I have read it over and over since then. I recently read it to my chidren for the first time. They loved it; they couldn't wait to go to bed every night so they could hear more. I have protected it carefully and affectionately these past 28 years so that I could pass it on to my children to share with their children. The only question was how would they share the one copy? WELL, Now they don't have to! I have ordered another copy so that they can each have one (maybe I need another for myself) and so very importantly, it is exactly the same as the original, the cover, the size, pictures, etc. Thank you so much Amazon.com for showing this book, I might otherwise never have found it.