The Animal Family

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book from childhood
Review: (...) (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.

Rating:
Summary: The Stuff Dreams Are Made of¿
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Absolute Magic
Review: No one gets away from me without my reccomending this book to read. It is such a beautiful tale of creating family that is so therapeutic to anyone living in today's harsh reality. This book could save the world.

Rating:
Summary: magical without predecessor
Review: 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 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.

My half-brother has three little girls (ages seven, five and three) whom I am going to meet soon for the first time; I'm hoping to be able to read at least the first two chapters to the two older girls, as I just know this will make an excellent first impression!

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.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book from childhood
Review: 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 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.

My half-brother has three little girls (ages seven, five and three) whom I am going to meet soon for the first time; I'm hoping to be able to read at least the first two chapters to the two older girls, as I just know this will make an excellent first impression!

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.

Rating:
Summary: The Animal Family
Review: This book is truly what you would call a beautifully written piece of literature. It is the story of a lonely hunter who meets a mermaid. She comes to live with him despite being torn between her home in the sea and her love for the hunter. They live happily except that they wish for a child. Since to have a human child is not possible, the hunter first brings home a bear cub and then a lynx who become like their children. This story has a wonderful, dreamlike quality to it. The words and story flow lyrically and almost timelessly and the descriptions are simple and wonderfully vivid and beautiful. It will apeal to all ages. Children will like the funny story and gentleness of the words and teens and adults will find the deeper meaning as well as appreaciate the lovely scenes. This is a book you will want to read over and over.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful story for the family
Review: This is a beautiful little book. Jarrell's prose is simple but lyrical. It is funny and touching, and appropriate for anyone, of any age.

Rating:
Summary: Becoming a family
Review: 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.