The cutest, warmest, furriest and squishiest photos of kids are the ones in which they are cuddling up with a loving animal. Well now, we can't send an animal your way but  what we CAN give you is a list of books that you can cuddle up with, along with excited little humans. Books about animals - funny, unpredictable, generous, strange, friendly, loud and just adorable.

Good Night, Tinku By Preethi Nambiar, Sonal Goyal and Sumit Sakhuja

Afraid of the dark? We all are sometimes. Here comes Tinku the dog, who explored the dark and found…. friends! Tag along where he wags on, and meet some new animals that are wide awake when you are deep asleep. From Hindi to Sanskrit, from French to Italian, we have all these translations available for you, and more!

 

Anaya's Thumb by Natasha Sharma and Ruchi Shah

Anaya has a bad habit. She keeps sucking her thumb! Know anyone like that? But then one day she went to the zoo and quit. Read about the human and animal behavior she witnesses before making this decision. Apart from a number of Indian languages, this book is also available in German and Portuguese.

 

Sniffles, the Crocodile and Punch, the Butterfly by Herminder Ohri

A big, strong animal that cries and a light as feather one that likes to punch! Let's go beyond the deceptive waters of someone's cover and read about this amazing friendship that… saved lives! Do you know Sniffles, the crocodile also speaks in Kiswahili and IsiXhosa?

 

Clean Cat by Kanchan Bannerjee and Deepa Balsavar

It doesn't matter how long you've been living somewhere, you will never know your neighborhood as well as a cat. This Clean Cat is up to all kinds of fun and antics. Read in 6 languages including Urdu, Marathi and two bilingual versions too.

 

Samira's Awful Lunch by Bharati Jagannathan and Preeti Krishnamurthy

How many of you have heard of kids complaining about what they got for lunch? *raises hand* You too? That's what we thought. Well, we have some very kind animals in this book who are willing to share ideas for food alternatives. Do read and find out what Samira finally chooses!

 

ಕಾಗೆ ಬಳಗವ ಕರೆಯಿತು (The Generous Crow) by Venkatramana Gowda and Padmanabh

It's hard to be in a classroom full of students and  feel 'different' or smaller than the others. It's probably like being a small crow in a huge forest full of animals that seem better than you. This is a story in Assamese, Telegu and Tamil in which a crow 'Caws Caws' his way through a journey of self-identity and self-esteem.

 

Noisy Crows by Kanchan Bannerjee and Deepa Balsavar

Here's another story about crows and this one is just plain NOISY! Available in Hindi, Marathi and Kannada along with English as bilingual books, find out which animal likes this crow's singing.

 

The Jungle Book by Madhav Chavan, Meera Tendolkar and Ketan Raut

Available in Punjabi, Odia and three African languages, this book follows a few animal friends who hear about an exciting new development in the forest. Their jungle has a school! So they go in search of it and wait for the teacher. Guess who turns up?

 

Busy Ants by Kanchan Bannerjee and Deepa Balsavar

Have you ever seen ants just loitering about or sitting in the shade passing their time? No, they are always busy, and they have some unique traits and skills too! You can read all about them in Malayalam and Tamil, along with other languages.

 

भीमा गधा (Bheema, the Sleepyhead) by Kiran Kasturia and Shweta Mohapatra

Translated in 14 languages, this book tries to answer a fundamental question of our existence: how does a person (in this case, a donkey) wake up early in the morning? Bheema likes to sleep like a log, and it doesn't matter who tries to wake him up. See what finally works for him. Maybe it will work for you too?

 

Do you have a favourite animal story? Tell us what it is in the comments, or on Twitter and Facebook!

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