February TIOLI: Read a book about an animal that travels

Look for a book which features an animal (or several) as an important story element. i.e. either the animal is the main character, or helps move the story along in an important way. Mythical or imaginary creatures are fine (by popular vote!) A character who has a pet that is just mentioned occasionally would NOT count. A good way to ensure your selection fits the challenge would be if the animal is named in the title or mentioned on the book jacket or in the book summary on the back.

The animals should also travel in some way (on the road, in the city streets, by various means of locomotion, through time and space, etc).

Here are some suggestions:

The Cry of the Wolf by Melvin Burgess (wolf)
The Elephant's Journey by Jose Saramago (elephant)
I am the Great Horse by Katherine Roberts (horse)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (menagerie)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (cat)
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev (carrier pigeon)
Plain Kate by Erin Bow (cat)
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Someone to Run With by David Grossman (dog)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (dogs)
Timbuktu by Paul Auster (dog)
Travels with Boogie by Mark Wallington (dog)
Tschiffely's Ride:From Southern Cross to Pole Star by A.S. Tschiffely (horses)
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (horse)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (elephant plus a whole menagerie)

Please go ahead and post your own suggestions here. You can also share the stories about the animals in the books you're reading.

This is the link to the wiki page so you can list books for this challenges.

This is the link to the main February TIOLI thread.

I found a great one! Thanks for a really hard challenge, Ilana. It made me look and look among all my TBR books.

I'll be reading Zarafa by Michael Allin, a nonfiction book about a giraffe that traveled from Egypt to Paris, France, to be part of the very first zoo in the world.

What's special about this particular book is that *it* traveled to me here in Rockville, Maryland (USA) all the way from a BookMoocher in Israel. The distance is over 6,000 miles!

I didn't realize I was creating a difficult challenge, I just wanted to be able to fit some of the books that I want to read this month! lol Your book sounds interesting. I spent a lot of time looking at the giraffes at the zoo in Sydney and that memory will always stay with me. I love getting and sending book all over the world via BookMooch. Some of those books are very well traveled indeed!

The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll is my most traveled book. Registered on BookCrossing in 2004, it's been around the world a couple times over the past six years. It's actually #16 on the list of Bookcrossing's 100 Most Travelled books!

Come to think of it, this book would also fit your challenge as it has a dog that "drops dead--more importantly, it will not stay buried."

That's really amazing Madeline. I keep telling myself I should register some of my books with BC before sending them off via BM. Though I doubt they'd get sent around quite as much as Wooden Sea!

Travels with Charley by Steinbeck would be great for this challenge. If I weren't already overbooked, I'd add that one.

eta oh, what the heck.

Oooh! One more Steinbeck for me to discover. Though not this month for me either, overbooked is the word!

Ilana, this one is nonfiction. I've been wanting to read it for years!

The first one that came to mind to me is The Incredible Journey.

> 5

Most books never even get journaled. This book is a pre-planned book ray in which all of the participants are registered BookCrossers who have done exceedingly well at not stalling the book. This tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

#8 I've been wanting to read it for years!

Why don't you go ahead and list it then? Worse come to worse you won't have time to read it and you can just remove it at the end of the month. On the other hand, it might give you that extra little push and you might find you can fit it in after all!

#9 What is it about?

#10 I'm not sure I understand what a 'pre-planned book ray' means Madeline, care to enlighten me?

>11 Smiler69: From Amazon:

"Instinct told them that the way home lay to the west. And so the doughty young Labrador retriever, the roguish bull terrier and the indomitable Siamese set out through the Canadian wilderness. Separately, they would soon have died. But, together, the three house pets faced starvation, exposure, and wild forest animals to make their way home to the family they love. The Incredible Journey is one of the great children's stories of all time--and has been popular ever since its debut in 1961."

> 10

What I'm saying is that the book wasn't just incidentally journalled; I planned to have it succeed. I collected names of Bookcrossers who wanted to read that book and set up a list so that each person could receive the book in the mail and, in turn, later mail it to another person. That's called a "bookray" (in Bookcrossing language).

Bookray: a book is mailed from person to person and stops with the last person on the list

Bookring: a book is mailed from person to person, with the last person on the list returning the book to the person who first mailed it out

#12 That sounds like an amazing story!

#13 Up until a minute ago, I thought Bookcrossing was all about releasing books out in the 'wilderness' (so to speak) and leaving it all up to chance. But I guess there's many ways to go about it!

> 14

But I guess there's many ways to go about it!

Exactly! The idea is to keep books moving among people who will read them. I give away many of my book to friends, fellow LTers, other BookCrossers, and lots of BookMoochers. Some book I give away at bookfairs; still others I "wild release".

By the way, I'm fascinated by the book I'm reading called Zarafa. The giraffe in the book is just about ready to leave Egypt and be transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea. Now that's what I call an animal that travels! :)

Zarafa sounds really interesting Madeline. I look forward to hearing more about it!

This is interesting (and from Zarafa):

"Of all land animals, giraffes have the largest eyes. Their prodigious eyesight enables them to identify and communicate with one another visually from as far as a mile away, beyond scent or sound, and this trait has allowed them to evolve the aloof dignity of nearly silent creatures."

I love giraffes. I think I mentioned spending quite a bit of time next to the giraffe pen in the Sydney zoo in Australia. The sun was just starting to come down and they were all gathered around a caretaker whom they obviously loved. And yes, one of the things that fascinated me about them are those huge eyes with their loooooong eyelashes which makes the look such pretty things. They are very special creatures indeed.

Now I want to go to the zoo and visit the giraffes...but it's bit chilly outside (not to mention it's dark)! :)

Can you imagine transporting a giraffe by boat? This one travelled with her body in the hold with other animals but with her head protruding through a (padded with straw) hole on the level with the people on the boat!

This is an amazing story, but it makes me feel so sad for animals that are caught and, even if not killed, treated as commodities. :(

This giraffe, named Zarafa, was being sent as a gift from Muhammad Ali, then Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, to King Charles X of France. The year was 1826.

I agree that it's sad that these animals are taken from their natural habitats. I don't go to zoos very often (hadn't gone to visit one since I was a child when I went to the Sydney one, which was a 'must see'), but yes, whenever I do, I can't help but feel sorry for the animals, even though sometimes it's obvious they are well cared for and loved (not always the case obviously). But then, when we think that most of their natural habitats are being decimated... sigh. Actually, forget I just said that, feeling blue tonight already, don't need to add to it. The book sounds like I might really enjoy it. Will look forward to your review.

This is one of the shots I took on my visit to Taronga Zoo in 2007. I created a Giraffes collection on flickr a couple of years ago. Unfortunately they aren't my best pictures ever, but I did manage to get a few. I wish I could go back to see them again...

Wow! They're such majestic animals. The one disturbing picture is the one with the city skyscape background. Such beautiful animals belong in their own (protected) habitat. I feel so sorry for all animals (even tiny ones) that no longer have a place to live.

The giraffe I'm reading about was taken to the very first zoo. Imagine! Less then 200 years ago, there were no zoos. Of course, animals have always been hunted for food, clothing, fuel, etc. since the beginning of time.

Thanks for posting those pictures, Ilana. It's nice for my reading. My book has barely any pictures worth noting because they're either missing or grainy as my book is/are (?) "advance uncorrected proofs".

I'm glad you enjoyed the pics Madeline, even with the troubling Sydney cityscape in the background! I'm not so surprised that there weren't any public zoos 200 years ago, but I do know that very wealthy families sometimes had their own menageries. I remember visiting some castle in the Cotswolds in England where they described the menagerie of wild animals that was kept on the grounds there. Poor things, creatures used to sunshine practically all year long made to endure English weather. Can you imagine?

At some time this month I'll probably read The Incredible Journey. It's years since I last read it and I quite enjoyed the film as well.

Other animals travelling books I considered (and am surprised that the author hasn't been mentioned yet) are Watership Down (Rabbits); Shardik (Bear) and The Plague Dogs (Dogs) - all by Richard Adams.

> 24

The book I just read addressed those menagerie of wild animals. People used to collect medical curiosities as well. Collectively both of those were referred to as each man's cabinet de curiositiés.

I wonder if the mounted insect collection I had as a kid could be considered one as well? :) Or perhaps the hamsters I used to keep as pets? After all, hamsters are native to Syria, not to Rockville, Maryland, USA!

#25 Funny you should mention Richard Adams, and funnier still, I was just talking about Watership Down on several threads and somehow didn't make the connection with my own challenge! lol

#26 Madeline, I guess you could say we all still have our own cabinets de curiosités. Some more or less obvious than others!

Am almost, but not quite halfway through Edgar Sawtelle and loving it so far. All that talk of dogs is right up my alley! Oh, the rest of the story is pretty good too. ;-)