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Week 7: A book with nonhuman characters
February 12-18, 2015


Who doesn't like animals? From Babe to Animal Farm, animals are often used to illustrate an author's story.


How to Create a Topic:
1. Choose your book and create a topic in the appropriate folder using your book's author and title.

2. In the body of your post, comment about why you chose this book. Have you read it before? What are your expectations?

3. Feel free to use the thread as a way to update the group on your progress. Also, when you are finished reading, add a small review and your thoughts about the week's challenge.

4. Comment on everyone else's posts as well! Participation and group involvement will make this challenge so much fun!

**If you chose the same book as another group member, do not create a duplicate thread.**



Week 7 Suggestions:
Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum
The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

A couple of questions...
Does it have to be a book of all or mostly non-human characters (as most of these suggestions are) or can it be something like Tiger Moon where one main character is a non-human? And does it have to be animals or can it be like aliens or cyborgs, if you want to go that route (something like I Am Number Four or Cinder)?

Well technically cyborgs and aliens would fall under 'nonhuman' right? ;)

I suppose that was a silly question, hmm? I'm stuck on this one. I really can't decide.

I'll leave this one up to you! I just typed in "nonhuman characters" in Google and of course I was given animals. I like the cyborg idea. Like I said, I'll leave it up to you. When you create a topic about the book you choose, just note what kind of characters are in it (animal, alien, etc).

I have an idea "les fourmis" by Weber (or Empire of the Ants) but the book is divided in two world, the world of ants and the world of human, so is this count for the challenge? ^^'
It's classified like an animal novel in France.

Les fourmis is a good one ^^
Oz has Dorothy, the Jungle Book has Mowgli, etc. It seems difficult to find a full nonhuman story.

I think I'll go for Animal Farm as it's short, or Watership Down which has very high ratings. I tried to find something with an appealing summary and failed miserably so I hope someone will add an interesting book to the list before week 7 :)

I don't think everyone in the book has to be nonhuman. I am hoping to fit one of my fantasy books in here.

I was super excited to find a book for this! I'm planning on reading THE BIG OVER EASY by Jasper Fforde. it's kinda a detective novel based in a nursery rhymes land. if I remember correctly, they are trying to figure out who killed Humpty Dumpty. :-) so there is some non-human characters!

As long as one of the main characters is nonhuman it should be fine!

I take it that vampires, werewolves, shapshifters etc. are considered nonhuman?

I'm gonna leave that one up to you! I probably wouldn't count something like Twilight as nonhuman, but that's just me. Just keep it challenging!

Currently leaning towards The Golem's Eye, I've read the first book in the trilogy and know that there is a real demon as one of the main characters. That should satisfy the nonhuman requirement, LOL!

I think it is one of those things that is open to personal interpretation. I wouldn't count vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters personally because they walk around in the human world attempting to blend in (in most cases). To the naked eye, they're human. That's just my thought though...

Some new ideas, as I've a hard time to choose/find one :)
Maybe it will help someone if they are available in his/her country.

Three Bags Full a "thriller" with detective sheeps which wants to discover who killed their shepherd.

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear and all the Zamonia serie. It's fantasy and each book has an animal point of view (this one is about a bear, in others you have a dinosaur, a cat, etc).

Fantastic Mr. Fox for the Roald Dahl lovers :)

Zaz, that three bags full novel sounds hilarious just from the sentence you wrote.

So I did a little more research and I don't think my first choice has a main character that it is not human. I mean, they're all nursery rhyme characters but the main two characters are Jack Spratt and Mary Mary. gonna read it for my funny book instead! And now to find one with nonhuman characters...

Britteny wrote: "So I did a little more research and I don't think my first choice has a main character that it is not human. I mean, they're all nursery rhyme characters but the main two characters are Jack Spratt..."

I'm really going to leave that up to you. A book like Narnia (or whatever) has 4 human kids as main characters but there is also a lion and a beaver and all that jazz.

I was wondering if Percy Jackson qualifies to this week challenge... like, Percy is not a human, he has a human body, but is a demigod. The same applies do the Mortal Instruments series. Human body, but technically not human. Does it qualifies?

Luisa: Hmm.. that's an interesting concept. If you absolutely can't find another book for that week, I would accept Percy Jackson. I feel like an English teacher when I say as long as you justify it! :)

It's like i have a lot of books in my shelf that i never read, so my main goal here is to fit every book i own but never read into te categories. Obviously a few i will need buy or get in the university library. Anyway, i found "How to train your dragon" series in the back of my shelf. I think it fits better :)

Timbuktu by Paul Auster is written from a dog's perspective. Fantastic book.

I'm still between Honor Among Orcs or maybe The Capture :/

I vote for Honor Among Orcs :D

That IS what I already have down...would be soooo hard to change it ;)

I was thinking about reading Wildwood by Colin Meloy. I bought this a while ago and haven't gotten to it. It's a beautiful(and big) book. I've heard mixed reviews but I hope I fall in love with it.

First book I thought of for this topic is The Art of Racing in the Rain

Andrea, that's perfect...it's on my bookshelf!

If anyone needs a suggestion I highly recommend The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It is based on a toy rabbit and his journey over the years. I read it in one day because I loved it so much.

Oh my God, I completely forgot about Redwall. How did I forget about that? It's only been sitting on my shelf at home for a few years now. I might have to switch my choice.

Kate wrote: "Oh my God, I completely forgot about Redwall. How did I forget about that? It's only been sitting on my shelf at home for a few years now. I might have to switch my choice."

Taylor has been begging me to buy him a copy of Redwall. Hmm..

Jessica > yeah good idea, you can buy each of us a book :D

Never heard about Redwall before. There are other animal books on the "Readers also enjoyed" :)

Andrea wrote: "First book I thought of for this topic is The Art of Racing in the Rain"

When I read this, my thought was darn I've already read The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Dog's Purpose last year. I loved both, and highly recommend to anyone who loves dogs! I did manage to hunt up another option, Dog on It, the first in a mystery series with the dog narrating. I've just received a copy from the library and so far so good!

Zaz again your The Bags Full book idea sounds very good! I might choose this one but I can still discover another book and change my mind until mi-February.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami has cats that talk, so I think this also qualify for a books with non-human characters.

Zaz wrote: "Some new ideas, as I've a hard time to choose/find one :)
Maybe it will help someone if they are available in his/her country.

Three Bags Full a "thriller" with detective sheeps whi..."

Getting ready to start Three Bags Full, as my under 30 book has not come in the mail yet. I am excited for something light and easier to read than the last one. I will be imagining that I am in that Bugs Bunny cartoon where the sheepdogs clock in and out!

Can't wait for this week! Got Howl's Moving Castle for Christmas and have been waiting not-so-patiently to start.

Sara wrote: "Zaz wrote: "Some new ideas, as I've a hard time to choose/find one :)
Maybe it will help someone if they are available in his/her country.

Three Bags Full a "thriller" with detectiv..."

I absolutely loved Three Bags Full when I read it a few years ago. Have fun with that one!

Oh yes! My pick was "Day Soldiers" by Brandon Hale. It contained vampires AND werewolves.

Camilla wrote: "I take it that vampires, werewolves, shapshifters etc. are considered nonhuman?"

I'm stuck on this catagory. I was thinking of reading "A street cat named Bob" for this catagory.
I have so many books already that I really don't want to buy another one to fit this catagory

Some members read books with humans + non humans, so A Street Cat is ok :)

I thought others had. Thank you :-)