A Newbery Zoo: A dozen animal stories by Newbery Award-winning authors

by Martin H. Greenberg

Animals -- enter their magic kingdom. From cuddly puppies to ferocious lions and every beast in between, children are forever drawn to animals and to stories about their adventures. And who better to tell these stories than authors who have won the John Newbery Medal for distinguished contributions to literature for children.

This collection of animal tales is a treat for the whole family. It includes stories by authors today's children know and love, from Beverly Cleary and Betsy Byars to Lloyd Alexander and Virginia Hamilton. There are also stories by writers familiar to parents and grandparents, from Elizabeth Coatsworth to Robert Lawson and Will James.

You'll find stories about zoo animals, wild animals, ranch animals, and pets. Animals that can talk and sing as well as bark, caw, buzz, and roar. There's a crow, a camel, a crusty crocodile, lions and wolves as well as cats and dogs, and much more.

Perfect for both reading aloud and reading alone, this is a collection to bring to the beach, pack in the picnic basket, or read in the car. Classtime, storytime, bedtime, or anytime, this is a book to share.

A portion of the royalties from this book will be donated to the American Library Association, administrator of the John Newbery Medal.

Genres: Childrens

179 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.

For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.

Reviews

[Cheryl]

I did read most of it, but by marking it 'dnf' I avoid having to assign a star rating. I'm not a particular fan of animal stories, but there's such a variety of samples here that most people will find something to enjoy. Too bad there are not pictures. The only thing I got out of it is the discovery of Mr. Wilmer by Robert Lawson... I am determined to find a copy of that to read!

[JennLynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous collection of animal stories by the crème de la crème of children’s authors. Now I want to track down the original book for the story by Robert Lawson!

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a time when I was reading everything I could by Newbery winning authors (looking for a common denominator). I happen to really like short fiction, so I thought that this would be ideal.

This book, like the Newbery Halloween book which I've read, has a fair amount of cuttings from longer works, posing as short stories. This feels like cheating to me. however, I wasn't as familiar with the authors in this book, as I was with the other, and so even the cuttings struck me as new.

Hard to go wrong with these top-notch authors!

[Michael]

Stories included:

Rascal Crow - Funny morality tale, with the "little ones" saving the day, literally. Not sure crow really learns anything, though. And why is every single animal and person male?

Henry and Ribsy Go Fishing -

He Lion, Bruh Bear, And Bruh Rabbit -

Tom and Jerry -

Fireflies -

Mr. Wilmer's Strange Saturday -

The Wounded Wolf -

Bess and Croc -

The Black Fox -

A Tale of The Poplar -

The Cat and the Golden Egg -

The Dancing Camel -