Beastly Tales

Traditional stories from all over the world told in rhyming couplets. I am amazed at the rhymes that Vikram Seth came up with to tell these tales....and that he says he wrote the first poem becuase it was too hot to concentrate on his (real?) work!I have this is hardcover. It's a keeper!

Everything is great about these poems. The rhymes are clever, beautiful and very often funny. In the tales the good wins from the bad, but after trial and tribulations, and always in unexpected ways. One of my favourite lines is about a goat and a ram: "They ate with pride as if to balance, their total lack of other talents". But quoting excellent lines would take about as long as the book itself. These are not children's rhymes, but I read them to my sons of 10 and 13 years old and we all three have a great time.

The fables most of us have read or heard since childhood are in this book, but all in beautiful verse form. As we read, we experience the joys and the sorrows of all the animals in the book, so much so that it feels like we are actually witnessing the events as they unfold. The language is simple and the delightful rhyme sees to it that you don't put the book down till you have read it from cover to cover. This book is sure to appeal to the young and the young at heart!

Yes, Virginia, poetry can be fun, amusing, enlightening, moralistic, wise, and intellectually challenging all at the same time. If ever there existed an argument for the joy of mastering a large vocabulary, this is it. The book should be required reading for all middle school students who think poetry begins and ends with Longfellow and Poe. I, for one, will pester the publisher to bring it out of retirement--nothing else comes close!