A book is a lot of things, and one of these is being a child’s best friend. Books allow them to explore the world and meet various people without leaving the comfort and safety of their homes. Additionally, books will enable them to imagine and perceive the world differently than reality.
One of the most common themes across children’s books is the usage of animals as the main characters and portraying them as humans. Authors call this anthropomorphism or the attribution of human characteristics to animal characters. This means children often find animals talking, working, and living regular lives like them.
You’ll most likely get divided opinions if you ask adults what they think about this. On the one hand, they think it’s a great way to engage children’s interests and encourage them to read. On the other hand, some think it doesn’t assist children’s learning and only confuses them about what’s real and what’s not. However, whether it can confuse children’s sense of reality or not, anyone can’t ignore how reading books with animal characters offers a significant value in children’s lives.
Why do Authors Use Animals Characters?
When most authors do simple and give life to regular, fictional human characters, why do some prefer to complicate things and use animals instead?
A perfect example of this is author Kishwar Mirza’s first book. Despite being her first book, she took this unique route and used animal characters. In the Stories and Poems from a Grandmother’s Heart by Kishwar Mirza, she gave barnyard and woodland creatures new adventures and created a world where they made conscious decisions and actions.
Animals Give Authors Freedom
Writing with humans as characters limit authors to stick to and follow human rules – whether moral or scientific. On the other hand, writing with animals and the fictional world gets rid of these limitations. This makes way for authors to be playful and challenge their creativity. While these rules may be broken through science-fiction and fantasy novels, writing a more fictionalized world with characters different from the readers won’t make them question behaviors that are way beyond possibility and imagination.
Additionally, authors risk encouraging them to engage in behaviors reflected in their books since they are writing for children. For instance, if authors write about exploring the jungle with children as characters, the readers might think it’s normal and follow suit. However, by using animals, children may separate themselves from the characters.
Animals Have Easier Character Development
Even though they are different from the usual characters, it doesn’t mean animals shouldn’t have character development. After all, this is an integral part of every story. In literature and biology, there are already existing animal motifs. Some of the most common characters are cute bunnies, lazy sloths, evil sharks, and mischievous monkeys.
Compared to humans, who would need a lot of planning regarding character development, stories with animals in them may not require such thorough details. But this doesn’t mean anthropomorphism stories don’t need any planning. It just requires fewer details in comparison.
These books’ character development may also catch more attention and interest on the topic of details since they can also be associated with physical change. This significant alteration can likewise inspire the readers to follow the behavioral change.
These Stories Transcend Global Barriers
This is an advantage for both authors and publishers. Books with regular human characters must be re-animated depending on which country it is published in. At the same time, animal characters transcend these characteristics and boundaries. Hence, adjustments to the animations are not necessary. Besides the factor of animation, animals are also easier to identify with. Even though they are very different from their audience, people may still find it easier to relate with animals than humans, who are diverse in race, characteristics, and others.
