The last good book I read was a book called “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. Although it is most commonly known as a summer reading book, I read it for fun. The main premise of the book is that it is the common story of a tyrant or tyrants that are overthrown by the lesser people but this story has a very special and quite humorous element to it, animals can speak. The novel is based around these farm animals that are abused by their farmer, Mr. Jones, and they wish to overthrow him. The first animal to propose this idea is an old pig named Major. He holds a secret meeting once Mr. Jones is asleep with all the other farm animals and proposes that animals should be the only ones to roam the farm, not the evil, abusive humans. A few days later, Major dies and they all think about what he said. They don’t think they will see the revolt happening in their own lifetime, but ideas can live forever. One day it just clicked and while Mr. Jones was feeding Boxer, one of the horses, he started to kick and bite Mr. Jones and chased him and his men out of the farm and once Boxer and the animals checked everywhere throughout the farm for any humans, they could finally relax. Once they were finally alone on the farm, they created a set of laws called the Seven Commandments. Number one was “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.” Number two was “whatever goes upon four legs or has wings, is a friend.” As I read it, the message seemed more and more clear. Humans are a very dangerous species and the only one that enslaves other animals. And, as it says in the book, humans are the only animals that take but do not produce. They take bacon from pigs, milk from cows, and give the animals so little as so they don’t starve but do not give back.

In my opinion, this book was very interesting and insightful of how our own world is portrayed in many ways. Usually I don’t like to read the same common story of a revolt against suppressors but since it was animals against their farmers, I couldn’t take my eyes off the pages. Overall, if you are interested in a good revolt story with talking animals, you’ll love it. Being that it is one of the most recommended books for summer assignments, it is great for kids too.