Anthropocentrism is the view that humans generally are and should be the only legitimate recipients of direct moral consideration. This thesis locates ideological expressions of this view in the content and structure of 48 children's realistic animal stories. I conclude that the texts send ambivalent and contradictory messages: while children's stories may serve to inform the reader about our actual and potential connections to other animals, they also contain elements that continue to privilege the dominant view. As a result, the stories represent a limited arena for considering or realizing an alternative to anthropocentrism.