Animals in Translation
Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

Temple Grandin
and Catherine Johnson

Softbound

$15.00

I've read and heard many reviews of this remarkable new book by Temple Grandin. Depending on the reviewer's focus, Animals in Translation has been seen as a groundbreaking revelation of animal behavior and awareness and/or an inspiring revelation of the world seen from within autism. It is both these things, but in my opinion it is also something else - I experienced it as one deep and brilliant insight after another into human nature itself, not just autistic human nature, but all human nature.

Grandin's insight into animals is so uncluttered and straightforward that she penetrates into the recesses of the human heart as well. The descriptions she gives of the sources of many animal behaviors apply unswervingly as well to the things hidden in the depths of the human soul that well up as surprising, irrational or inconsistent reactions.

If you work with children, this book has more to offer you than I can describe in the space of one review. I can, however, give you an example which I think goes to the heart of how this book can be used on behalf of other people, especially young people. On page 145, Temple begins a discussion of Fear-Driven Aggression. She has previously described Assertive Aggression and is now contrasting it with aggression resulting from fear:

Fear-driven aggression causes so much violence and destruction in the animal and human worlds that I've often asked myself, What is rage for?

Why do we have rage circuits at all?

When you look at animals living in the wild, the answer is simple. Rage is about survival, at the most basic brute level. Rage is the emotion that drives the lion being gored to death by the buffalo to fight back; rage drives a zebra being caught by a lion to make one last-ditch effort to escape. I once saw a videotape of a domestic beef cow kicking the living daylights out of an attacking lion. It was some of the hardest kicking I have ever seen. Rage is the ultimate defense all animals draw upon when their lives are in mortal danger.

When it comes to human safety in the presence of animals, fear cuts two ways. Fear can inhibit an animal or a person from attacking, and very often does. Among humans, the most vicious murderers are people who have abnormally low fear. Fear protects you when you're under attack, and keeps you from becoming an attacker yourself.

But fear can also cause a terrified animal to attack, where a less-fearful animal wouldn't. A cornered animal can be extremely aggressive; that's where we get the saying about not getting someone's "back up against the wall." An animal with his back up against a wall is in fear for its life and will feel he has no choice but to attack.

On average, prey species animals like horses and cattle show more fear-based aggression than predatory animals such as dogs. That shouldn't be a surprise, since prey animals spend a lot more time being scared.

I categorize maternal aggression differently from some researchers; I put it in the fear department. I think maternal aggression is fear-driven at heart because over the years I've observed that the high-strung nervous animals will always fight more vigorously to protect her young than will a laid-back, calm animal like a Holstein dairy cow. Many a rancher has told me that the most hotheaded, nervous cow in the herd is the one who is most protective of her calf.

Any mother, nervous or calm, will fight to protect her baby. That's why on farms the human parents always warn their children to stay away from mama animals. But the fact that it's always the most nervous, fearful mother who shows the most maternal aggression makes me think that maternal aggression is driven by fear, even when the animal is calm by nature. When mother animals think their babies are in danger, they feel fear, and their fear leads them to attack. That's my conclusion.

This brings me to the fundamental question you have to ask yourself any time you're trying to solve a problem with aggression: is the aggression coming from fear or dominance? That's important, because punishment will make a fearful animal worse, whereas punishment may be necessary to curb assertive aggression.

The Animals and Their Destiny

Karl König

Softbound

$39.95

Our time is one that has fostered a tragic relationship between human beings and nature, making it a very good time revisit Karl König's voice of conscience, a voice that spoke with compassion about the intertwined destinies of man and all twelve phyla of animals – the invertebrates (protozoa, coelenterates, echinoderms, tunicates, molluscs, worms, arthropods) and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals). His was a courageous, somewhat out-of-step voice in the climate of neo-Darwinian thinking of the early 1960s when these lectures were given. However, in the context of the moral dilemma provoked by recent developments in genetic engineering and the increasingly urgent calls for a reassessment of current attitudes towards the animal world, his thoughts and insights resonate with the concerns we all carry in our hearts.

König sought to place a new understanding of evolution alongside the orthodox view, and his radical approach still challenges the scientific mainstream in ways that offer food for thought to the open-minded student. These seminal lectures invite the reader into a landscape of perception and insight that can engender a new moral imagination towards our evolutionary brothers, the animals.

Animals as Teachers and Healers
True Stories and Reflections

Susan Chernak McElroy

$13.95

What a journey this book is! And what a warm and invigorating reminder of the goodness with which our Earth was created. Susan McElroy began her journey toward writing this book when she discovered that she had cancer. As a part of her healing, she reconnected with her love for animals and forged links between herself and the animal kingdom that she had previously forgotten she had even wanted. In this process, she also spoke to and listened to others, gathering story after story about the amazing love and care that is possible between humans and animals and between animals and animals. The result is a book that nourishes the readers soul as it brings yet another drop of healing to the strife between human beings and the natural world. A wonderful gift for yourself, teenagers and adults!

Animals as Guides for the Soul

Susan Chernak McElroy

$13.95

Although Susan McElroy thought her work was done when she published Animals as Teachers and Healers, the truth is that it was only beginning. It soon became clear to her that many people longed for the loving connection to the animal world which she offered and that the animal world in turn had even deeper wisdom and healing to offer. In Animals as Guides for the Soul, McElroy has created a passionate and eloquent portrait of the truths and revelations she and others have experienced in their daily encounters with animals. As she reminds us, the fingerprint of God is often a pawprint. Teens and adults will love this book!

Conversations with Animals
Cherished Messages and Memories as Told by an Animal Communicator

Lydia Hiby
with Bonnie S. Weintraub

$13.95

Lydia Hiby, pictured on the cover of her book as a four-year-old deep in conversation with her goose friend, did what most of us do - she emerged from a childhood wherein she was in constant communication with all creation and promptly forgot that she or anyone could ever "talk to the animals." Imagine her surprise when she - by now a confirmed skeptic - discovered that she still knew how! Conversations with Animals is much more than the story of this rediscovery, it is a deep account of the lives of animals told by a wonderfully warm and modest soul. Lydia's insights are all the more penetrating because she truly knows how to stand aside and let the animal speak for itself. You'll love this book!

When Elephants Weep
The Emotional Lives of Animals

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
with Susan McCarthy

$16.00

I think I'll let Jane Goodall (whom I have loved and admired since childhood) tell you about this book:

This is not only an important book, it is marvelous! If animals could read they would be filled with joy and gratitude to the authors - as I am. It is scholarly, vivid, and compelling. Please read it.

This is a truly great book - I also hope you will read it.

Dogs Never Lie About Love
Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

$14.00

Myth, literature, scientific studies, personal stories, observation and just plain LOVE guide the reader through the surprising depth of canine emotional complexity, revealing what dog lovers have always known, that our 'best friends' have a wonderful and rich inner landscape. The author's own three dogs are the centerpieces of the book and lead the way in his exploration of a wide range of subjects - from emotions like gratitude, compassion, loneliness, and disappointment to speculating what dogs dream of and how their powerful sense of smell shapes their perception of reality. As he sweeps aside old prejudices about animal behavior, Masson reaches into a rich universe of dog feeling to find its essential core: love. A great, soul-warming journey.

Kinship with All Life

J. Allen Boone

$13.95

I discovered this book about 25 years ago and have remained enchanted ever since. There is something so moving, so exhilarating about J. Allen Boone's story of his own awakening to the sentience within and behind animals. In the course of "petsitting" a dog movie star named Strongheart (Boone worked in Hollywood), he discovered to his surprise and astonishment that he could comprehend Strongheart's thoughts and that Strongheart could comprehend Boone's. More than that, Strongheart knew a depth of reality (which he graciously shared with Boone) that surpassed Boone's previous experiences with life. This was just the beginning - Boone was soon privileged to meet flies, ants, birds, snakes and more who revealed secret after secret to his listening heart. Once you've read this book, your own relationship with animals will change forever, and for the better!

Honey-Bun

Anne Stockton

$14.95
Hardbound

It's hard to know what to say about a book whose every passage evokes tears of both joy and grief. Honey-Bun is as much a Song of Songs to the love that passes between human and animal as it is a Requiem for a lost friend. Anne Stockton has not written just another beautifully written story about a beloved pet (and I love such stories); she has created a work of art - poetic prose, luminous pastel paintings, and a story both unique and universal. This is a very special book - the kind that is treasured and cherished as it is passed among family and friends.

Thinking in Pictures
and other reports from my life with autism

Temple Grandin, Ph.D.

$13.95

Prepare for an incredible journey into the workings of the human mind - both normal and abnormal. Temple Grandin, a Ph.D. animal researcher who is also autistic, has gifted us all with an intimate "insiders account" of autism. You will learn more about the nature of this syndrome and of the workings of your own mind from this account than you could from any collection of theoretical reports. Further, because Temple is also a consummate scientist, her report is filled with the latest discoveries about the neurological basis of autism and about what therapies have been found to work and for whom they are effective. This is a great book that is certain to help anyone working with any special human needs. Outstanding!

Rascal

Sterling North

$5.99

Our family read Rascal many times over the course of our nightly family story time - it never lost its ability to captivate, charm and delight. Rascal is truly one of the best animal stories every written - and even better because it is a true story, told by an author who lived every wonderful minute of it.
Rascal is a baby raccoon, orphaned in the woods when the boy Sterling brings him home. Soon, Rascal is ready to join Sterling at swimming, fishing, and camping. He's also ready to initiate some of the most hilarious adventures of his own. The raccoon's unique approach to life fits right in with the home Sterling and his father share - a home where skunks, woodchucks, a crow named Poe and an 18-foot, half-finished canoe are resident in the living room! Wonderful reading for everyone - as a read-to for ages 7 and up; read on their own from age 12.

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be

Farley Mowat

$5.99

In this practically perfect story, Farley Mowat recounts his boyhood days on the Canadian prairie as they revolved around Mutt, a dog of uncertain pedigree and absolutely certain eccentricity. Mutt climbed trees and ladders, rode in an open car wearing goggles, and hunted with a skill approaching genius. A thoroughly marvelous dog portrayed in a thoroughly wonderful story. For ages 10 and up at family reading time, for teens on their own and for any adult in need of a refreshing break.

Never Cry Wolf

Farley Mowat

$12.95

Never Cry Wolf was my first encounter with Farley Mowat as a naturalist and gifted writer. I have never forgotten it. There is more heart, clear observation, and truth in this book than in dozens of reports on the state of the environment. It is an unflinchingly true story. Sometime in the early 1960s, the Canadian government's Wildlife Service assigned Farley Mowat to investigate reports that hordes of bloodthirsty wolves were slaughtering the arctic caribou. Mowat was dropped alone onto the frozen tundra, where he began his mission to live among the howling wolf packs and study their ways. Contact with his quarry comes quickly; and Mowat discovers not a den of marauding killers, but a courageous family of skillful providers and devoted protectors of their young. As Mowat comes closer to the wolf world, he comes to fear not the savagery of the wolves, but that of the bounty hunters and government exterminators who seem bent upon erasing the noble wolf community from the Arctic. Mowat now lives in Port Hope - an ideal name for his dwelling place on Earth. Outstanding for teens and adults.

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Animal Speak

Ted Andrews

Sadly out of print - try the used book market - it's worth the effort

I use Animal Speak primarily for its wonderful portraits of the animals with whom we share the Earth. Ted Andrews knows these creatures from the depths of his heart and shares his compassionate wisdom in such a way as to invite you into a world where all creatures speak their unique gifts to ears willing to listen. Learning to so listen can become a living pathway toward experiencing personal union with the Love that guides us all.