Delightful stories from the natural world where animals talk and where man is but a cameo and nature waves its magic wand. Kipling was one of the authors i loved as a kid owing to "The Jungle Book" coming as an animated series in the National Television channel. I even remember seeing this book at a book fair quite a few years back too, but then it took me so long to get this book . Until I went through the foreword penned for this book, I never understood the tinge of tragedy that surrounded these tales about Kipling's daughter who succumbed to Pneumonia and to whom these tales were dedicated.

Kipling's stories are free of convention, of logic and bowl you over with sheer wit and ingenuity. These are bed time stories par excellence with Kipling's take on how the camel got its hump, or on how the alphabet was made and so forth. Even though not explicitly mentioned we travel with him to Africa, India, The Americas, Indonesia and so forth in these tales. Even King Solomon makes his presence in the tales and it all sums up to a wonderful little package.

Recommended...