White Fang
Jack London, 1906.
Before you read: Animal fights and cruel owners. Older readers, with an adult.
White Fang is born in the wild north, part dog and part wolf, and is pushed into human camps. Some people use him as a fighter. One person tries something else. London’s other famous dog book goes from a house to the wild. This one travels the other way, and it asks whether kindness can be learned after fear. It is still a hard book. The fights are the point of the cruel chapters, and they are not hidden.
Public-domain text.