WATERSHIP DOWN - Richard Adams

Easily up there with Orwell's Animal Farm or E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, Watership Down is a classic must-read that works on many levels, beyond the fact it's just a brilliantly-written, wholly involving story.  The tale of a warren of rabbits, led by the quiet but forward-thinking Hazel, forced to leave their home in the English countryside due to land developers, you wouldn't think a full-length novel about talking rabbits would be so moving, but Adams has created both a vibrant and rich history of their story (outlined beautifully in the novel), plus given each of the main characters such warmth and humanity, as they face multiple problems and dangers in their search for a new home, the reader will be hanging onto every page (and yes, it's one of those books that will leave you a bit sad in the end, maybe even teary-eyed, if for no other reason than because it's over).  Seen as a children's or YA book, Watership Down has been labeled as "too good for just kids" over and over - and indeed, the heart and soul that breathes within the pages of this powerful, touching, allegorical  novel are a good part of the reason why, more than forty years after it was first published, it remains revered by critics and readers alike as a classic of literature, children's or otherwise.  *****