The late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a rise in literary works for children centered on animals as protagonists. The Romantics began featuring and centering their narratives around animal characters. Out of this growing awareness of the presence of nonhuman animal bodies and the growing sentiment towards animals, women (in particular) directed considerable effort to narrate the lives of nonhuman animals through children’s literature. Beyond representing animals as literary figures capable of having their subjectivities accessed by readers, animal narratives call attention to the changing social and political attitudes at the time. With animal characters that were simultaneously represented as both nonhuman and human, animal narratives could fashion formative pieces of literature for children that both anthropomorphized the animal and called attention to a greater need to advocate for the well-being and treatment of their nonhuman animal counterparts. Despite garnering popularity with children for featuring animal characters as narrative subjects, Romantic animal narratives, especially those written by women, also garnered popularity for their tendency to critique the inadequacies of existing legislation to address cruelty inflicted on animals.