The Animals of Farthing Wood

Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood is a big, brave animal adventure for 10 year olds about a whole wood's worth of creatures who have to find a new home before the bulldozers reach them.

What happens

Farthing Wood is nearly gone. Humans have cut it back year after year, and in a long, hot drought they fill in the last pond. So Badger calls an Assembly in his set, lit with glow-worms, and every animal comes. The rabbits, fieldmice and voles sit as far away from Adder and Weasel as they can get.

Then Toad stumbles in, thin and exhausted. He was carried off in a jam jar the spring before and has walked all the way home. On the way he found White Deer Park, a nature reserve where nobody is allowed to harm them.

So they vote to go. Fox leads, Toad guides, and Tawny Owl and Kestrel scout ahead. Everyone swears an oath to protect each other on the way, which matters when Adder is coming too (he offers to carry the mice in his jaws, very gently...).

Reading it feels like joining a big, bickering family. Badger rambles on about the old days. Tawny Owl is grumpy and rather a snob. Mole sobs in his tunnel because he thinks he's too slow to come, and Badger offers to carry him on his back. It's hard not to love them.

This is a survival story, so be prepared. The route runs through a housing estate, across a busy trunk road and over a river, and the journey brings fire, storms and hunters. Even the opening is sad, as the bulldozers tear down trees while the animals hide and shudder. A child who gets very upset when animals are in danger might find it hard going. A reader who's ready for real stakes will be gripped.

If your reader loves a proper quest with lots of characters to root for, this is a brilliant one.

What to read next

When they're ready for more, Watership Down is the natural next step. A small rabbit called Fiver sees a new notice board in the field and knows something terrible is coming, so a handful of rabbits slip away from their warren to find somewhere safe.