The Animals of Farthing Wood (Farthing Wood, #1)

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The Animals of Farthing Wood (Farthing Wood #1)

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 1,566 ratings · 33 reviews

A group of forest animals unite to help each other to safety in this classic tale of tolerance, cooperation, survival, and friendship. When bulldozers enter Farthing Wood, the animals must escape before their homes are destroyed. They promise to stick together and protect each other—but then they get caught in a fire and nearly drown crossing a river. Will their pact hold?...more

Paperback, 302 pages

Published April 1st 2007 by Egmont UK (first published 1979)

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Jun 26, 2012 Shelina rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is about a group of different animals that live in the forest called Farthingwood. Humans are trying to cut their forest down, and they must escape, leaving their comfort zone and home. They wondered out to find a new home and through their journey they encounter lots of danger. The animals show courage and friendship, by always helping each other and finding a way out of their troubles. A great book to show the importance of friendship and good relations, also a great look into how an...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Lucinda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a book that i treasured as a child and that i would take everywhere with me & read, until the pages were practically coming away from the spine. I adored even the front cover with all the beautiful animals that enchanted me and it was a story that i revelled in and found myself lost within something that was so poinant, exciting and adventurous. I love a story that is full of drama, action and adventure and this tale has it in abundance which was also similar to other stories that i...more This was a book that i treasured as a child and that i would take everywhere with me & read, until the pages were practically coming away from the spine. I adored even the front cover with all the beautiful animals that enchanted me and it was a story that i revelled in and found myself lost within something that was so poinant, exciting and adventurous. I love a story that is full of drama, action and adventure and this tale has it in abundance which was also similar to other stories that i loved as a child/ teenager such as 'The Wind in the Willows'and '101 Dalmations' and even 'Watership Down' which are all similarly beautiful adventure stories that contain animals rather than people as the central focus points. My imagination was taken on a journey of descovery into a world of rabbit dens, burrows and woods that was utterly delightful and so beautifully captured on paper that it made you feel as if you were actually there; situated in the middle of the wood whilst surrounded by all different types of woodland animals, it was just so completely realistic and authentic that proved how great a writer Colin Dann was. I adored all the compelling and exciting action and drama that which was fast-paced and left you breathless, only wanting to read on and find out more. It was also the animals as the story's characters that i grew to love and treat as indaviduals, because of their uniqueness and distinction. It is a heartwarming tale of friendship, unity and love and one that is both utterly charming & delightful that hundreds of children will love and cherish. If you are a fan of works such as the 101 Dalmations, or Watership Down or the Wind in the willows (which are all fairly similar in terms of adventure/ animal content), then you will completely love 'The Animals of Farthing Wood'. It is a book that i have cherished and loved since a young child when i first beheld it (at aged 10 or 11) and one that i still truly love just as much even now, as it is just so emotive, heartwarming and beautiful that i cannot help but keep re-reading it time and time again. Out of all the books that i loved reading as a youngster this was one of my favouriteds and one which i could not help but take much enjoyment, pleasure and delight from reading and i cannot hence enthuse enough at how utterly charming & poinant a book this is. I urge you to read this at any age as i can garuntee that it will exceed all expectations, and it is a novel that still even today holds a special place in my heart. (less)

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Jul 28, 2012 Abucketofawesomebooks rated it 5 of 5 stars

So my deep love for all the characters in the Animals of Farthing wood, started as far back as I can remember. In fact I can't remember a time I didn't love this story/characters within it (I even love the characters I dislike). I was originally exposed to it as the animated cartoon series. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered that it was in fact a book, as soon as I found out about this fact I bought the book (I had to get my local bookshop to order it in). I loved it just as much...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals

As their home of Farthing Wood is being torn down by humans, the inhabitants of the forest must put aside their differences and embark on a journey to find refuge in a natural reserve several weeks of travel away. This is the basic gist of this book which, at a first glimpse, might look like a rehash of Watership Down, except with all kinds of animals instead of just rabbits.

The story is actually quite nice for a children's book, though for me it sometimes jumps too easily between the whimsy an...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Jayne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-lit

Its been over twenty years since I read this book last with my school class, all of us following along as our teacher (the one who impacted me the most) read aloud. Now I'm looking forward to revisiting it with adult eyes :)

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Jan 2013: I think this might be THE most spiritual children's book I have ever read. There's nothing to skip over, NOTHING to admonish. It's just a deep and lovely read with a meaningful message :)

I loved how each character had his own unique character. Badger was k...more Its been over twenty years since I read this book last with my school class, all of us following along as our teacher (the one who impacted me the most) read aloud. Now I'm looking forward to revisiting it with adult eyes :)

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Jan 2013: I think this might be THE most spiritual children's book I have ever read. There's nothing to skip over, NOTHING to admonish. It's just a deep and lovely read with a meaningful message :)

I loved how each character had his own unique character. Badger was kind, Fox intelligent and courageous, Mole humble (and greedy! A vice that had its own price to pay), Kestrel focused and determined, Toad strong and perservering, Pheasant vain, Adder painfully honest, Rabbit grounded.

The writing oozes intelligence and is wonderfully imaginative. I especially enjoyed the scene where Badger collected glow worms and used them to light his inner chambers the night the animals gathered in his sett: very endearing and sweet. The story also eminated spirituality and important messages about the care and preservation of Creation, friendship, loyalty and consequences of choices, bravery, perserverence, intelligence and wisdom, kindness, mercy, virtue and admonition.

The story telling also had a nice rhythm with noticable ebbs and flows. A period of intense adventure and action would be followed by one of peace and tranquility and so on, creating interest and enjoyment. Dann's words often painted vivid and effortless pictures in my mind.

I also loved how Fox saw something positive emerge from a negative event. This showed his maturity and his spiritual eye was open; noticing how, 'All works for good...'

The courtship that took place between Fox and Vixen was admirable. I loved how Fox admired and respected Vixen's inner and outer beauty, and the way she was not quick to give her heart away, but asked him to prove himself to her before cleaving to him. It was all so virtuous and delightful; such a good example give to young minds.

I also enjoyed the message that went with every animals uniqueness: we all have a place and a part to play in life; no matter how small or large; weak or strong. I appreciated the way Dann did not shy away from adressing the realities of life: death, suffering, hardship and hunger; but met these topics head on, with hope intertwined.

A book that I could recommend to any child or parent without reserve; especially those of whom are Believers :)(less)

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Feb 28, 2013 Karl Orbell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: naturalists, nature, wildlife, children

When I was considerably younger, there was a programme on TV, lots of short-ish episodes, animated, wonderful orchestral theme music and lots of slightly anthropomorphised animals (purely in voice and thought, nothing else). It was an unusual production, a collaborative effort between most of Europe's primary television channels, an environmental message to share. I loved it, watched it many times, even in my adulthood; my mother did too.

Skip forward a decade or two and I find out it was based o...more When I was considerably younger, there was a programme on TV, lots of short-ish episodes, animated, wonderful orchestral theme music and lots of slightly anthropomorphised animals (purely in voice and thought, nothing else). It was an unusual production, a collaborative effort between most of Europe's primary television channels, an environmental message to share. I loved it, watched it many times, even in my adulthood; my mother did too.

Skip forward a decade or two and I find out it was based on a book all along. It was promptly bought, scheduled and looked forward to. It was good, I was pleased to see that the TV adaptation stuck fairly closely to the book in terms of the plot, so I recognised all the scenes and characters. With perhaps one flaw the book has, that the TV adaptation fixed. The book is pretty sexist, it's old, but not that old, so should know better. Mainly only male characters talk, with the exception of Vixen, the others occasionally chide their "husbands", but generally just act demurely and are spoken for and controlled by their mate. This was particularly prominent towards the end, with a scene drinking from a puddle of beer, where only the male animals were allowed to drink. The TV adaptation converted a number of major characters to seemingly female roles, at least that's how I remember them (Owl, Adder and Weasel - all males in the book). That is the only complaint however.

At times the book is tremendously exciting, particularly when there is danger present, and they are running for their lives. The overarching point of the book though is similar to Watership Down, though more thickly laid on; that humans are bizarre destructive creatures who ruin the wild areas that grow scarce around us, for no justifiable point at all. It does take the time to say we're not all like that, and indeed promotes naturalists to the state of saints - a position I would concur with, generally.

Worth a read, particularly for children and those with a love of the environment and wildlife.
(less)

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Feb 14, 2012 Wechselbalg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overall it's a really great story. Good morals.
There are just two things I didn't like.
(view spoiler)...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Brian marked it as on-hold · review of another edition Recommends it for: Animal lovers

Recommended to Brian by: Ravensaurus Rex (don't ask)

Shelves: fantasy, animal-stories, action-adventure, children, adult, books-with-a-good-message, needs-more-hype, commercial, ipad

I was obsessed with the TV series back in 8th grade. (It was uploaded on YouTube). I'm very excited to read the books now. They seem like among the better animal stories out there, and one of the few that actually portray reptiles as heroic characters.

Several years back, I was dead-set on writing animal stories in my writing career. But sadly, books like these never do too well. Readers don't identify well with nonhuman characters, and the subject matter is generally too esoteric to be fully emb...more

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Jan 16, 2013 An rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 30, 2011 Fiona rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: all children, especially those who only read that girly crap out there

Shelves: books-i-own, childrens-and-young-adult, anthropomorphic, fantasy-sci-fi-horror, series, 2011

1993 a new cartoon series came to the BBC and being around six or seven years old, I sat down to watch it. I loved animals and anything to do with them. It has long since been one of my favourite things to watch since being a child. I first read the books when I was about eight or nine when the second series came out on TV.

Lately I bought myself the DVD of The Animals of Farthing Wood – only available in Germany weirdly enough but you can watch the English version rather then having to learn Ger...more 1993 a new cartoon series came to the BBC and being around six or seven years old, I sat down to watch it. I loved animals and anything to do with them. It has long since been one of my favourite things to watch since being a child. I first read the books when I was about eight or nine when the second series came out on TV.

Lately I bought myself the DVD of The Animals of Farthing Wood – only available in Germany weirdly enough but you can watch the English version rather then having to learn German. I just sat down and watched it pretty much straight through. I can’t have seen it in about ten years since our video player gave up the ghost and it is just as good now as it was back then.

And so seeing as I still had my old book I read when I was a child – I decided to re-read the series. It’s been a bit like memory lane and I’ve been wanting to revisit my old childhood favourites for a while now anyway.

It’s going to be difficult to review this book without comparing it to the cartoon series. For me both are so caught up with each other in my head anyway.

Having re-read it I can say that the TV series is a lot better. The book I felt was rather dated and I thought a little sexist. The only female character who had a voice was the Vixen and even that was very little comparatively. In the cartoon series, many of the book’s characters have had a sex change.

The Animals of Farthing Wood is quite similar to Watership Down albeit aimed at younger children. They are both about a group of animals who decide to travel to a different home due to human’s building on their land. The animals are presented realistically and do not behave like animal shaped humans. They are not overly cute and they face dangers that would naturally occur in the wild – and some of them even die.

The deaths in the book I felt to be less traumatic then they were in the TV series. I cried throughout the cartoon, but in the books deaths were dealt with much more matter-of-factly and of course, without any timely music.

Colin Dann goes in a bit heavy handed with the moral message about human’s complete lack of regard for wildlife – touching upon animal cruelty as well as environmental destruction. Understandably however, this book is aimed at children and so the message probably has to be made a little more obvious and clear. Quite often some of the characters will lapse into a small lecture of how strange humans are and how cruel they can be.

This is a good book for children who love animals, or even adults too. Whereas Watership Down is much more aimed at Young Adults to fully grown adults, The Animals of Farthing Wood is more suited to a younger audience.

However young and old alike will enjoy the beautiful cartoon which you can see on youtube. Like the Watership Down film (1978) the backgrounds are beautifully drawn in watercolour.

This is the first book in the Farthing Wood series and I hope to re-read the rest of them in due course.

(less)

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Aug 08, 2011 Marc rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals

After having seen the TV-series about 10-15 years ago as a kid, I finally got the chance of reading the books.
When I started reading, I didn't remember much of the series, except that I totally loved it and there were foxes in it. So, my expectations of the book were very high.

It's a good thing the book lived up to that expectations :-)

Aimed at teenagers, it's easy to read, but the plot certainly makes up for that. Each chapter I read, more and more images of that famous TV show came back to mem...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Annie Pearce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A childhood favourite of mine that I recently re-read in it's entirety. It still made me laugh, cry and wonderfully nostalgic and I believe it is a fantastic example of children's fiction that can also be equally enjoyed by adults! Books like these certainly made me the animal lover I am today!

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Aug 05, 2012 Lucy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourite-childrens-books

I loved this series as a child, I used to stay up really late reading by torchlight under my duvet because I couldn't put them down. Full of adventure and very sad in parts but perfect for any animal loving children.

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Nov 03, 2010 Ryohei rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story is about animals escaping from reclamation of the Farthing Wood where they originally inhabited. This story is written in a perspective from animals. The most curious thing in this story is that the carnivore such as fox and badger are acting as a group with herbivore such as rabbits and field mice. I like this story because this story tells the expression or thoughts of animals which we usually cannot understand. Moreover, they try to help each other even though there is a boundary b...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Court rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun read; it's always difficult to find good animal fiction, I've found, but this was well written and I loved the characters, most especially Badger and Adder. I was nervous for the animals as they made their journey from one home to the next and relieved when things would work out. Seemed to have a bit of an agenda against humans who build into animals homes,poison and kill them for sport, which are of course things that I despise too, but I don't know if I like to be quite so slapp...more

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Apr 25, 2009 Dana rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book was SO boring! You always knew what was going to happen next and the story was too slow. Coming from me, someone who loves almost every book they've ever read, this means it's REALLY bad.

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Oct 14, 2011 Vanessa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

Very few books have ever made me bawl my eyes out quite as much as this one (and the rest of the series) did. I did read it when I was about 13/14, but still- SO SAD.

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Sep 01, 2012 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: challange-books, library, modern-classics, ks3

The story line is interesting and the issues raised are still relevant today. However, the characterisation is lacking. I'm a huge animal lover but I didn't respond emotionally when any of the animals died, then again neither did their companions.

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Jul 19, 2012 Princess Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Classic tale! Couldn't wait to re-read this book! Still as heart-warming as an adult!

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Jun 06, 2013 Susan marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended-by-tori

reading this because it's a good book and to help with my mouse stories

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Sep 26, 2011 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children, fantasy, reread

One of my favourite childhood books. I love the characters like old friends. I've always loved the animal adventure books and this is one of my favourites.

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Jan 04, 2009 Robin marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recomendation from Fiona

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Dec 12, 2008 Yvonne added it

good for young and old

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Feb 26, 2013 Katy rated it 4 of 5 stars

it was cool

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Sep 25, 2008 Kristi rated it 3 of 5 stars

ok. so i was FINALLY going to finish the audacity of hope (and my taking so long to read it has nothing to do with its content cause it's wonderful) and pick up west with the night. Then my lovely fiance handed me this book and asked me to read it cause it was her favorite book as a child. how could i say no? sigh.

**
just finished it, and it is a tale of animals against man, green living, and interspecies bonding. i will definitely read this to my future kids.

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Feb 10, 2013 Jackie Mc rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorite-books, books-i-ve-read-in-2013

What a lovely book, I feel like I'm with these animals on their journey.

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Jun 16, 2011 Jebin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved it. It is certainly one of my top ten favourite series.

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Apr 14, 2009 Sam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens, classics

A thoroughly enjoyable book even now, the characters of the animals is well conceived and well written. The losses suffered by the group are heart wrenching and subtle and the end success is everything you hoped and more. A fantastic tale of friendship and determination in the face of extremely difficult circumstances, a wonderful book for readers of any age

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Apr 08, 2012 Hermione rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This has always been a favorite of mine since an early age. Out of all the books I've read about animal stories this has always been at the top of my list. I liked every bit of it from the animals to the plot. Fox and Owl are my favorite characters in the book. I use to love the TV series when it was shown on the BBC years ago . I would recommend this book.

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Feb 05, 2010 Gregory rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: movie-better-or-different-enough-t

This is a nice, quaint little novel that probably makes for really good young audience reading if you're actually part of a young audience, and yet, I remember really liking the TV show when I was little and I still think that in its treatment of action and its admittedly Disney-villain-esque approach to drama, it was just a little bit more exciting.

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About Colin Dann

Colin Dann (born 1943 in Richmond, Surrey (now part of London)) is an English author. He is best known for his The Animals of Farthing Wood series of books, which was subsequently made into an animated series.

Dann worked at the publishing firm William Collins Sons & Co. for thirteen years, and his first novel, The Animals of Farthing Wood, was written during this period. The original cover for...more

More about Colin Dann...

Books by Colin Dann

In the Grip of Winter (Farthing Wood, #2)

The Siege of White Deer Park (Farthing Wood, #5)

In the Path of the Storm (Farthing Wood, #6)

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