Books Blog : animals

The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:19:00 GMT

The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart might have the most endearing characters I've encountered in awhile. I had no idea where the story was going for most of the book but I didn't care because Balthazar Jones and all the rest of the characters were keeping me perfectly entertained.

Balthazar Jones is a Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Member of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary... or a Beefeater. He and his wife, Hebe Jones, live in the Salt Tower in the Tower of London because all the Beefeaters live in the Tower of London. While Balthazar and Hebe are dealing with personal tragedy, Balthazar is contacted to be in charge of the reinstatement of the Royal Menagerie at the Tower. He's been chosen because of Mrs. Cook, his family's 181 year old tortoise. Meanwhile, Hebe Jones, her co-worker and friend Valerie Jennings, Tower residents like the Reverend Septimus Drew and the Yeoman Gaoler and others work through their own daily trials and triumphs.

The animals that make up the menagerie include Jesus Christ lizards, Geoffroy's marmosets, a zorilla, ringtail possums, toucans, a lonely wandering albatross and many others. The animals and the Tower setting are as important to the story as the human characters. That said, some of the best scenes are in the London Underground's Lost Property Office, where Hebe Jones and Valerie Jennings work. Their office is filled with items left in train cars or at stops. It is a lost-and-found so big it takes two people to keep track of all the false teeth, shoes, inflatable dolls, canoes, plants and whatever else turns up until rightful owners can be located.

The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise is a book that can be dark at times. It takes place mostly at the Tower of London, which is primarily a tourist attraction now but once held many prisoners, some of which were tortured and some of which died in the Tower. It's filled with reminders of those times. Some of the characters have personal problems they're trying to overcome. Rev. Septimus Drew builds contraptions to try and kill the rats that have long resided in the chapel. However, humor and the charm of the quirky characters won me over again and again. It is not a depressing book; in fact it is ultimately uplifting. Julia Stuart has written us a very charming novel.

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French

lit.fic.reader@evpl — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:23:00 GMT

"Eleven elephants. One plane. Hurtling together across the sky." From these opening sentences, I was captivated by this account of the inner workings of zoos, in particular Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. The author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and currently a professor of journalism at Indiana University.

There are many elements that combine to make this such an absorbing narrative. Woven throughout the book is discussion of the issues surrounding the pros and cons of holding animals in captivity and the attendant political implications, local and international. The daily challenge of providing for the well-being of the zoo's residents as well as the safety of its human visitors falls on the shoulders of a largely young, poorly paid, and overworked, if dedicated staff. The author intersperses these considerations with the histories of two of the zoo's most celebrated residents: a chimp who has never fully recovered from his separation from the human family that raised him until adolesence, and a stunningly beautiful but ferocious Sumatran tiger. The ultimate fates of these two animals, the "king" and "queen" of the Lowry Park Zoo, are sadly reflective of the shortcomings of institutions housing animals. Finally, a lighter tone is introduced with an amusing comparison of the behavior of the two-legged power brokers of the Tampa area and the zoo's overreaching director with that of the four-legged denizens of the zoo.

This is as enjoyable a nonfiction title as I've read in a long time and I highly recommend it for its thoughtful examination of the complexities of human-animal interactions.

In discussing the dangers of working with animals, the author makes brief reference to the Christmas Day 2007 attack by an escaped tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, resulting in one human death and another serious mauling; and to the horrific killing, in view of a shocked audience, of a trainer by an orca at Orlando's SeaWorld in February, 2010. An excellent article on the SeaWorld tragedy, "The Killer in the Pool" is in the July 2010 issue of Outside magazine, available at Central and North Park libraries, and is also highly recommended.

Remarkable Story of an Owl and His Girl

wag.mado@evpl — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:13:00 GMT

Yes, that's the subtitle of the book I just finished. Wesley the Owl is a must for anyone who has ever been in love with an animal. The story is written by Stacey O'Brien, who was a lab assistant at Cal Tech when she adopted a 4-day-old barn owl after he suffered permanent nerve damage and could not survive in the wild.

The story, which spans close to 20 years, is filled with fascinating anecdotes of the relationship that developed between these two sentient beings. O'Brien's education as a biologist helps the reader understand many interesting facts about barn owls, but that does not keep her from falling deeply in love with Wesley. The story has a deeper meaning which is about unconditional love and commitment and is referred to many times in the book as "the way of the owl."

I found this memoir humorous, heartwarming, educational, compassionate, and I had a hard time putting it down. I'll never think of barn owls the same again.

A day after finishing the book, I tuned in to Oprah where she featured a man whose best friend is a Grizzly Bear. That segment was followed by a friendship between an elephant and a dog at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald Tennessee -- the same place where Evansville's beloved "Bunny" lived out her last few years. Must have been my week for animal relationship stories!

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

HRevvdon@evpl — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:39:00 GMT

I finished The Underneath (2008) by Kathi Appelt over the weekend. I am not sure what to say about it. The first thought I had was "why would anyone write this book?" It is a young readers/juvenile fiction book and a finalist for the National Book Award, and I wonder why? I would not want my child to read it. I stopped reading several times, but I did pick it up again. When I read about the book I knew there would be some cruelty but I was not prepared for how much I received.

A mother cat is dumped off by her owners because she is going to have kittens. The mother cat is befriended by a hound dog that has been chained to the corner of a falling down bayou shack to be an "alarm" because he is not good for anything else in his cruel master's opinion. The dog is starved, beaten, and has not been off the chain for years. The kittens are born under the shack in The Underneath where they are sheltered and protected by the unique alliance between the cat and dog. This is a lesson in diversity and family that is not as well written as it could be and gets loss in a lesson of both the thoughtless and intentional cruelty of people towards animals. The dog's owner is a victim of his mother's desertion and his father's drunken abuse. He is a monster, there is no humanity left in him. He cares nothing for any life. All ends well, well, as well as can be expected. It is a horrific journey. The thoughts of the animals and the conversations between the animals were well written, that and the second story line kept me reading.

The second story line involves a 100 foot alligator, a 1000 year old grandmother snake, her shape-changing daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. This mythic and mystical story, at times, is better written than the cat/dog story line. The switching back and forth of the story lines sometimes helps to move the story along and sometimes hinders it. I would have enjoyed reading a more developed version of this mystic tale and its prehistoric peoples.

I did not like this book, mostly because of the cruelty to the animals - I could not get past that to appreciate the book as a whole.