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OT - Animal Stories w/ Happy Endings

maraichmaraich Posts: 489
edited December 1969 in The Commons

There is a lady at the same group home as my mother, and she has been very kind and helpful during these past few months. She just got finished reading a book called "Hannah's Dream", which is about an elephant and human very devoted to her. It has a happy ending and I would like to find more books like this to give this lady. Does anyone have any suggestions? All of the animal books from my childhood had terribly sad endings and I would like to avoid getting her anything like that.

Comments

  • ValandarValandar Posts: 1,417
    edited December 1969

    maraich said:
    There is a lady at the same group home as my mother, and she has been very kind and helpful during these past few months. She just got finished reading a book called "Hannah's Dream", which is about an elephant and human very devoted to her. It has a happy ending and I would like to find more books like this to give this lady. Does anyone have any suggestions? All of the animal books from my childhood had terribly sad endings and I would like to avoid getting her anything like that.

    Oy, yeah... on TV Tropes they call it "Death By Newberry Medal", since the Newberry medal is an award for children's books. But unfortunately, none come to mind.

  • SpitSpit Posts: 2,342
    edited December 1969

    There's a series of books called 'Chicken Soup for ...' and I've started reading the 'Chicken Soup for Dog and Cat Lovers' (or something like that) on my Kindle Fire. The stories can be a bit sentimental which is fine--kinda like reader's digest pieces. I was reading some heavy stuff and needed to break it up a bit, so I open up this book and read a story or two. There's some sadness because real life can be sad at times and these are true stories, but for the most part they're uplifting and joyful. There are more titles in the series so you can check Amazon. Mostly contemporary(ish) but the story of Greyfriar's Bobbie is in there too.

  • Moss_35089Moss_35089 Posts: 20
    edited December 1969

    hi
    she may enjoy this, i did "Racing In The Rain: My Life as a Dog"

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 7,005
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, I never got why all the animal stories had to end with tragedy... yeah, I get it you wanna teach people pets can be courageous, they can have sad backstories and Mr Mittens won't live to be 90, but really... do they all have to end with a mercy killing or being blow to smithereens.
    Then again I did write a short story called "Vincent Vole and the big gambling debt"... but the Possum Mafia only shot him in the kneecaps and he eventually learned to walk again in the sequel "Vincent Vole and the big Marathon"... of course he did have a heart attack from steroid abuse... but he recovered in "Vincent Vole kicks drugs"... but that was after he ran over his friend Sally Shrew and the guilt drove him to drinking which was cheaper than drugs anyway... you know in retrospect I'm a pretty terrible person and my stories do nothing to help animals with addiction problems.
    But they were all printed on recycled paper, so there is a plus...

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,629
    edited December 1969

    Heck, if you find some, can you send me the titles, too?


    I too learned to hate animal stories through a childhood of tales like Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, The Red Pony, and the Yearling. Even The Dog Who Wouldn't Be ends like that. People start writing a story about an animal they loved and then it turns into a coping project about their grief for the loss of that same animal. That's nice for them, but it sucks for the rest of us. Every animal story doesn't have to end with a horrible lesson in Inspirational Grief Counseling.


    As far as I know there's The Cat Who Went To Paris and A Cat Abroad. Just don't read The Cat Who'll Live Forever. Similarly, Cleveland Amory's the Cat Who Came For Christmas and The cat And The Curmudgeon are good, just don't read The Best Cat Ever. Deric Longden's The Cat Who came In From The Cold is hilarious and ends happily as well (I'm sure he probably has some later one about the freakin' cat dying, just like the others; just don't read it).


    I don't have dog recommendations because I'm a cat person. ;) Maybe someone else can help out.

  • ValandarValandar Posts: 1,417
    edited December 1969

    There's always "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls", but depite the adorable Pixel, it's not exactly an animal story...

  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,253
    edited December 1969

    I hauled my stepmother off to see 'The Black Stalion' back when that film came out. She loved it, and went on and read the whole series. I'm pretty sure most of those had happy endings.

  • carolinebegbiecarolinebegbie Posts: 162
    edited December 1969

    Sheila Burnford's The Incredible Journey was a good one. Paul Gallico has some good animal stories, like Scruffy and the Assisi one, and Ludmila, but I can't remember the endings.

  • maraichmaraich Posts: 489
    edited December 1969

    Thank you everyone for you kind advice. I'm going to check out your suggestions. It sounds like there may be enough out there that I can get her something for her birthday too.

  • murgatroyd314murgatroyd314 Posts: 1,436
    edited December 1969

    The one that immediately comes to mind for me is The Hundred and One Dalmatians (the original book by Dodie Smith, not the Disney adaptation).

  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,253
    edited December 1969

    There was a sequel to that one called something like 'The Starlight Barking'. I may have that wrong, it might be twilight, or sunset or something like that.

  • CbirdCbird Posts: 493
    edited December 1969

    "Rosie is My Relative" by Gerald Durrell

    A rather hilarious elephant story with a happy ending. (I wonder if elephants get them more often because of the lifespan).

  • SpitSpit Posts: 2,342
    edited December 1969

    I picked up another in the 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' series...I Can't Believe My Cat Did That---there's one for dogs too. I haven't started it yet, but it sounds kinda fun.

    I'm still haunted by the only scene I remember from watching Bambi as a child. 'Run! Run! Don't look back!' Sigh.

    Of course, I was also hauled screaming out of the theater while watching The Wizard of Oz but that's a different issue. :-)

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,629
    edited December 1969

    Spit said:
    I picked up another in the 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' series...I Can't Believe My Cat Did That---there's one for dogs too. I haven't started it yet, but it sounds kinda fun.

    I'm still haunted by the only scene I remember from watching Bambi as a child. 'Run! Run! Don't look back!' Sigh.

    Of course, I was also hauled screaming out of the theater while watching The Wizard of Oz but that's a different issue. :-)

    Hope you didn't see Return to Oz as a kid, then. :-D


    It was much truer to L. Frank Baum's books, meaning it was much more creepy, morbid, and out there with the fantasy elements, As an adult I admit I kind of prefer it.

  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,253
    edited December 1969

    It was absolutely gorgeous. And the characters looked as much like Neill's illos as was feasible (although he always drew Dorothy as a blonde with a bob). But it went over like a lead balloon. Wherever the script muddled the storyline was always where they were trying to reference the 1939 film version.

    But I think that people were expecting a musical, and it flatly *wasn't* that. Nor was it the kind of storyline that would have lent itself to a musical.

    I am looking forward to the upcoming Oz film. The trailers look good, but there are all kinds of ways that it could go very wrong.

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