4 Animal Fiction Books that Inspired my Writing
Remember that wonderful phase of your life, between the ages of about eight and twelve, when all you read were books about anthropomorphic animals? Just me? Luckily, I’ve managed to get a whole duology out of my childhood obsession. It’s called Shadow of the Pack, and the first book, Black Magic, will be available for preorder this fall! But anyway, before I get carried away self-congratulating, I want to talk about some of the books that inspired my story. Since I started working on Shadow of the Pack when I was thirteen, I had a whole host of animal books still fresh in my mind that jogged my imagination.
Wolves of the Beyond
This series scared me, but it did so in the best way. It’s got witches, evil cults, dire wolves carving stories on bones . . . I could go on. It’s delightfully creepy, and as a kid I appreciated that it didn’t talk down to me. Wolves of the Beyond taught me how to toe the line between challenging young readers and actually scarring them for life. My duology is definitely not as creepy, but there’s a little bit of dark magic mixed in, because books are just better that way. Lasky also cleverly uses the structure of a wolf pack to explore what it means to be an outcast, an idea which I maybe (okay, definitely) borrowed.
Wings of Fire
Do dragons count as animals? Would they be classified as mythical creatures instead? I’m not exactly sure, but since some of the wolves in my duology have magical powers—a trait very much absent in nature—I think it’s fair to put them in the same category. Speaking of powers, I loved how the group of protagonists in these books all have different abilities and strengths that complement one another. I remember the allure of those bright covers at the Scholastic Book Fair (I put my favorite here) and how each type of dragon stood out. A couple of the characters are considered outsiders or are feared for having dangerous powers, but ultimately everyone’s unique strengths get embraced. I drew on these ideas when writing Shadow of the Pack’s protagonist, Mala, and her growth throughout the story.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is some very questionable parenting going on in Wings of Fire. Animal fiction is an interesting place to explore family dynamics, since the characters live in such a different world from ours. You probably weren’t stolen from your parents as an egg in order to fulfill a prophecy and save the world (please, let me know if you were), but you might be able to relate to some of the dragonets’ struggles anyway. I tried to have the same empathy for my characters when writing Shadow of the Pack, which is full of parental figures whose flaws force the younger wolves to be more independent.
Warriors
You all knew this one was coming. If you’re my age, you were either obsessed with this series or at least spotted the endless rows of cat faces in every bookstore and library. There are a lot of these books (my bookshelf has at least thirty, but there are more) and a lot happens in them—ghost cats, charmingly ridiculous character names, surprisingly gory deaths, multiple forbidden romances, and an oddly plot-relevant stick. It’s like a TV drama with season-long arcs and everything, except all the characters are talking cats. It’s a little absurd and also kind of the greatest thing ever.
The real brilliance of Warriors is the way it immerses you in the daily lives of these feral cats. Eight-year-old me could imagine myself as a character in the story, hunting and fighting beside the main characters despite them being an entirely different species. My love of reading began with Warriors, and I’m still best friends with the person who introduced me to it. It’s no surprise that my first big writing project at age nine was glorified Warriors fan fiction.
Shadow of the Pack is at least 50% a tribute to my childhood obsession with Warriors. I tried to write a duology that eight-year-old me would have loved. The wolves in my story hunt for their food and must fight every day to survive. They have a complex social hierarchy and customs they’ve been following for generations. Their relationships with each other are as complex as human ones. Luckily, the similarities don’t extend to word count. I have neither the time nor the dedication to fill an entire bookshelf with wolf faces.
Julie’s Wolf Pack
Yes, it’s another book with a giant wolf on the cover, to exactly zero people’s surprise. You might have heard of Julie of the Wolves . . . this is the criminally underappreciated third book in the trilogy. I’m talking about this book in particular because the wolves are the protagonists, whereas the earlier ones focus more on human characters. I love many of Jean Craighead George’s books, but I actually skipped the prequels to this one, and I was able to follow it just fine. Unlike the others on this list, it’s not a fantasy book per se—the wolves live in our world, they don’t talk, and they behave in realistic, well-researched ways. It’s narrated in third person almost like a documentary, stopping at points to explain elements of wolf behavior. A bit strange, for a children’s book. But I reread it over and over. It put me in the minds of real wolves, not just talking, humanlike versions.
This was the book that really, properly inspired me to write Shadow of the Pack. I wanted to find a middle ground between a magical talking animal story and a realistic portrayal of wolf behavior. The characters in my book don’t talk (an excuse for me not to write dialogue) but their lives aren’t narrated like a documentary, either. The world they live in is not our own—there’s magic, for one thing—but they act in many ways like real wolves.
Also, if you’re wondering how I had the audacity to give characters names like “Ice Eyes” and “Greatpaw,” you can blame Jean Craighead George.
If you’re also a fan of animal books, please send me recommendations! And check out Black Magic, the first book in my duology, which will be published in spring of 2022.
