Funny Animals

Funny Animals, Maria Skrebtsova, Lulu, 2009

Here is a group of short tales for children. But, these are not your average cute stories; they let children know that all problems have solutions, and that nothing is completely good or bad.

An abandoned blind puppy is adopted by a cat who brings the puppy home to her children and started to feed him milk. The puppy quickly grew bigger than the cat, but continued to obey the cat. One day, a huge dog enters the garden where the animals live. It darts towards the cat with a fierce growl, who leaps over the fence. It sniffs the puppy and says that they should chase the cat, since they are of the same breed. What does the puppy do in response?

A bear and her cub live together in a mountain cave. When the cub is grown up, mother takes him to a clearing in the woods, where he sees trees and the sun for the first time in his life. The cub has to be reassured that there is no reason for panic. In the afternoon, the sun sinks behind a mountain, who says that it will take the sun away forever. Mama has to explain that even the highest mountain can't put out the sun. Did the sun return the next morning? What did the mountain say?

A hare and a squirrel were friends. When the hare returned from trips to the vegetable garden, looking for carrots, he always shared with the squirrel. The said he would reciprocate when winter came. One winter day, the hungry hare stopped by, looking for a bite to eat. The squirrel said that he was worried that he wouldn't have enough food to last the winter, so he said no. The hare survived the winter, and when summer came again, the hare refused to share his carrots with squirrel. Why? Was the hare justified?

These tales are very easy to read, and they are only a couple of pages long, so they are made for a child's attention span. They do a good job of starting to introduce concepts like right and wrong, being considerate of others and finding solutions to problems. The fact that the stories are about animals certainly helps. Yes, this book is worth your child's time.