WILD STORIES

These previously published stories of the creatures that inhabit a garden left to run wild is a complete and felicitous package, enhanced by the addition of a few poems and winning pen-and-ink drawings. The rabbits, spiders, mosquitoes, cat, owls, chickens and even slugs and maggots display charm and personality even as their diets remains true to each one’s nature. Death happens, as the food chain is obviously intact, and it’s surprisingly easy to accept, as it’s portrayed with the same humor as the thoughts that guide the creatures in their daily pursuit of food and satisfying relationships. The humans of Number Fourteen figure incidentally to both problems and solutions experienced by the animals of their garden. The short chapters are ideal for families to read aloud with a wide age range of children and supply entertaining and fascinating fun for lovers of the natural world who would like to have a conversation with the insects, birds and mammals that populate the typical suburban setting. (Short stories. 6-11)