Allan W. Eckert (1931–2011)

Wow, this book. It was a bit rough going at first. Due to the age of the story, the way people talk felt awkward, the background explanation of the boy’s family felt over-explained in a rather stiff way. But once I got into the real part of the story, I was blown away. Especially by the ending. Very traumatic, bittersweet and delightful all at the same time. It’s about a boy who has a secret ability- he can transfer his consciousness into any animal nearby. There’s no element of magic (why I tagged this one as ‘speculative fiction’) it’s just something he’s always been able to do. He can taste, hear, smell, feel every sensation the animal experiences- including exhilaration, fear, pain, etc- but not control them at all. The boy has tried to share his experiences with his parents, what he feels and learns when spending minutes to hours as an animal- but they think he’s daydreaming and brush it off, then get impatient that he doesn’t give up the idea, then get concerned that there’s something wrong with him mentally or emotionally. They go away on a planned trip and leave him on a horse farm the mother’s friend owns. The boy has never been around horses before and he’s fascinated by them- and of course he goes inside them (as he calls the phenomenon). He has to be careful to keep what he’s doing hidden from other people, having learned from reactions not only by his parents but also his best friend, that nobody understands this, people make fun of him, avoid him, or are suspicious of his activities. However when a veterinarian visits the farm, the boy is intrigued by his work and hangs around watching. He’s able of course to feel what the animals do, and tries to hint at the vet what’s wrong if the problem is not found. This works for a while but it starts to get more difficult to hide his ability, the vet (who becomes a close mentor, almost a father figure) starts to get suspicious. And then a prized horse in the barn falls deadly ill, but nobody knows except our protagonist. He tries to do something, but it all goes terribly wrong . . . leading to an almost tragedy.

I won’t say more in case someone actually wants to read this. If you have a deep interest in animals, or ever daydreamed (like I did as a kid) about being able to fly like a bird, run as fast as a horse, walk quietly in the night as a cat seeing everything clearly . . . this book will become an instant favorite. There was so much love of nature woven into the story, and fantastic details about how wild animals live their lives, even new things the boy discovered about them (but then couldn’t tell anybody how he’d learned it). This is the greatest by Eckert I’ve read so far- even tops Incident at Hawk’s Hill, which has always been steadfastly among the best books ever, in my mind.… (more)

From the same author of Incident at Hawk’s Hill (a book loved as a kid) Story of a wild cat, offspring of a domestic cat and a male bobcat. Have to say right off the bat, there’s a lot of brutality, starting with a man trying to drown a mother housecat and her kittens. The protagonist of the story, the crossbreed himself, is the sole survivor when the log his mother denned in gets swept down a river in a flood. He’s exhausted, half frozen and near starved when rescued by a kid who’s out fishing. The boy knows his father hates cats (especially wild ones) so he hides the kitten in a shed on their property. Raises the crossbreed, names it Yowler, and even successfully teaches it to hunt. Eventually the boy’s father discovers the cat and things go badly. The boy runs away with Yowler but they get separated- Yowler is on his own in the wild, where he’d do okay really- there’s pages and pages describing his successful hunting forays- but he runs into trouble when is chased by hounds, caught by disreputable men who put him in staged fights with dogs, and after escaping, gets caught by a steel trap... Through his misadventures Yowler ends up far south of his normal territory, encountering animals he’s never seen before- armadillos, freshwater crocodiles, a wolf. Also has run-ins with lynx and bobcats- mates with several females but since he’s a hybrid himself, there are never any young. And in one improbable but very sweet encounter, he temporarily adopts an orphaned bobcat kitten. He travels north whenever he gets the chance, eventually finding his way back to his birthplace and even the site where the boy had raised him in the shed. I liked this story, even if some parts of it were particularly gruesome (the fights with dogs in that people bet on) or a bit unlikely (adopting the kitten himself). Dubious if a domestic cat / bobcat cross actually is a thing, plus some of the behavior in here isn't realistic, but I enjoyed it regardless.… (more)