I find it far more satisfactory when an animal in the books is able to play a *real* role in the plot, and not be merely an amiable hanger-on. Dogs can sniff a trail that humans can't, they can take messages (tied to their collar), and they can even protect people if they are big and strong enough, and suitably trained. Timmy can do all these things; Scamper appears to be little more than the amiable hanger-on I mentioned.Lucky Star wrote:I think she may well have been trying to think of a differant animal for the Barney series as opposed to the usual dog that everyone has in her books.
One of the interesting aspects about a monkey is that, in addition to being able to things like these (can they sniff trails like a dog, too? - I'm not sure), they also have hands - so they can do things that require manual dexterity - which could make them even more useful still. That is one reason I contemplated having a monkey in a story I now want to write (and have begun recently); but the research came up with so many down-sides, that I discarded the idea - with some regret. Also, I didn't want to take even the slightest risk of appearing to copy the Barney stories too closely - even though I would write in my own way, and the monkey's owner was to be a completely different type of person to Barney.
There are a few credibility problems too, but they strike me as less profound than those with a monkey. Kiki's potential usefulness is different yet again: her ability to mimic human voices, and her ability to fly. I do seem to recall places where Enid Blyton exploited both of these for plot purposes, although I don't recall the details offhand.Lucky Star wrote:A parrot had already been used
Well, as a person whose favourite animal is cats (I'm not really an animal lover beyond that), I might dispute that. But where they would be remarkably useless in a story of that type is that they can't really be trained to do anything that would be useful in an adventure plot (that I can think of, at least); and moreover, they don't even have a tendency to follow their owner like a dog or monkey (or parrot?) might - so even just managing them to ensure they didn't get lost would be a major problem - if it could be done, it would just mess up the plot too much.Lucky Star wrote:... and cats are not that exciting really."
Undoubtedly true - and I think it was a factor in my early thinking. But I think I let reality limit me far more than Enid Blyton did.Lucky Star wrote:On the other hand a monkey would have a certain appeal to many children and that is probably why she chose it.
True.Lucky Star wrote:All of Blyton's animal characters are, to a certain extent, a bit too good to be true.
Regards, Michael.
P.S.:
I'm off now - I may not be back for some days, or if I am, it may be only briefly. (I explained that elsewhere.)