The best talking animals in children's books

From Peter Rabbit to Mr Fox to Philip Pullman’s magnificent talking polar bear Iorek Byrnison, the Book Doctor gets her ear to the ground and seeks out the chattiest of animals in books

Bear wisdom: Iorek Byrnison carries Lyra (played by Dakota Blue) in The Golden Compass (the film version of Northern Lights, the first in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Photograph: Everett/Rex Features/c.New Line

Julia Eccleshare

Monday 2 February 2015 

My children love stories with talking animals in them. Who are the best talking animals?

Animals of all kind are fertile territory for storytellers and especially storytellers for children. They can be used for many reasons including raising consciousness about the environment and as ways of imparting a moral message as in Aesop’s Fables or “trickster” tales from around the world, which are often the earliest stories that children hear.
Long before children can be sure that animals do not really speak, they are completely familiar with stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs or Anancy the shape-changing spider man.

Children enjoy Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit and her many other titles which are a seamless fusion of real and imaginary. Her illustrations of animals are so closely observed from nature that they appear to be completely “real” and yet, they wear clothes and speak as humans. 
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