I enjoyed this book and even read it to my preschooler. She enjoyed the fun stories about how the animals "became." It's a fun read with great lessons. You'll love meeting the vain Polar Bear, the hard-working Lionocerangodiff (?), the speedy Torto, and the sleepy Whale-wort.

Poet Ted Hughes tells his version of how animals came to be. The stories are surprisingly complex, and they are filled with brilliant fresh imagery and structure.What animals? Whale, fox, polar bear, hyena. Tortoise, bee, cat, donkey. Hare. Elephant.I listened to the audio of this, read by Ted Hughes and Michael Morpurgo. I was mesmerized.

6/10

This volume of Ted Hughes’s ‘creation’ stories was first published in 1963, and has now been published in paperback with a bright modern cover.There are eleven stories averaging eight pages each and each story tells of how and why a particular animal behaves as it does.The volume opens with the story of why the owl hides away during the day and only comes out at night. It is because he played a nasty trick on the other birds so that he could eat them as opposed to rats, mice and beetles. The oth...

This was a re-read of one of my childhood books. These vignettes are a little like the 'Just-So' stories, though not quite as richly woven. Still, an enjoyable bit of nostalgia. I'm wondering whether to introduce both series of shorts to my Chatterbooks group.

Conjunto de pequenos relatos a imaginar a origem de alguns animais em tons tanto de conto-de-fadas como mitológicos. Se alguns soam quase forçados ou menos imaginativos, nenhum deixa de revelar engenho na construção do respectivo enredo e nos jogos morais esboçados nas interacções entre as personagens. Algumas histórias, como a da coruja ou a da hiena, são muito interessantes, admiráveis até, demonstrando os poderes do autor para engendrar relatos tão fascinantes como simples para oferecer aos a...

"Boyun kısalmadan olmaz!" diye bağırmış Tanrı. "Boyun kısalmadan gelemezsin!" "Peki ama nasıl küçüleyim?" diye ağlayarak sormuş Balina-otu denizin ortasında bir o yana, bir bu yana sallanarak. "Ne olur, karada yaşayabilmek için nasıl küçülebilirim bana söyler misiniz?"

This isn't the edition I read btw. The one I read was a Puffin but it isn't on Goodreads and I can't be bothered to add it. This edition is the one I read when I was a child. Here's a weird thing. In my head it is a book of poetry. I was convinced. But it isn't. It is a collection of short, whimsical stories about how some of the animals came to be what they are. It's as simple as that. The world is created by God. Animals appear but they aren't quite sure what they are. So, the becoming a thing...

Hughes turns his hand to writing origin stories for animals. I feel like I should have liked this one more than I did. Then again, nope. I liked it just the right amount, regardless of its author, and honestly, I've read much better animal myths.

I bought this because I remembered one of the stories. It's a slightly lopsided mess of a collection with some stories being more fun than the others, but good.

Clever engaging small stories for small children

Charming, inventive, and sufficiently odd to remind one of the real strangeness of folk tales.

I'd been meaning to start reading Sylvia Plath, so when I came upon a book by her husband, Ted Hughes, on my mother's shelf, I had to give it a shot. It was essentially a collection of short stories about how certain animals evolved into the creatures we know today. It was such a lovely and simple read, and I really enjoyed it!

It's admittedly hard to read Ted Hughes' How the Whale Became and Other Stories and not think of the animal tales in Kipling's Just So Stories . The tales within are, quite obviously, much of the same type: a short tale providing a fantastical explanation of why a certain type of animal is how it is or does what it does.This comparison is both to Whale's advantage and detriment. The detriment is that Hughes, though the far better poet, oddly doesn't have quite the same sense rhythm as Kipling...

I believe this is the first Ted Hughes book I've ever read. If I did read anything else of his, I honestly don't remember. If they're all like this one, I'd definitely like to check them out.I've read the Turkish translation version, so I have no idea what the "other stories" in the English version are. In the one I read, though, it starts with how the whale became, and then it moves onto other animals. All of them were absolutely adorable, yet the whale was my favorite. And I especially loved g...

This was the very first book with more letters than drawings I´ve ever read,this was like 20 years ago and since then I love to read. I think this is a good story for kids that are learning to read because it´s full of short stories that keep them interested from the begining to the end in a short time.I still keep my copy of it and now I can hardly wait for my niece to start reading so I can share it with her.Its a great book!!!This is the first book I´ve read to my son.

An EXCELLENT collection of animal stories and how each became. Full of adventure intertwined with reasoning and moral questioning, it's not only about how the animals became but the behaviours and characteristics that shaped who and how they became. A rich reading experience.Thank you Ted Hughes!

Tales of how the animals 'became' - in short, easy chapter bites. I'd say more 5+ than the 8+ though as directed by the 1001-childrens-book editors.I liked this collection a lot better also than Kipling's "Just So Stories" - considering a children's audience - as the language is simpler and more modern. The image of the whale flattening God's house and garden fence is ridiculous and funny.But be ready, if you're not of a religious household, for the questions from your little person about God, a...

Found this at the library and am reading them to Sylvia. We both really enjoyed these animal origin stories. They were unpredictable yet satisfying with just a little more going on thematically than the typical kids' lit fare.

A mixed bag of stories, with each story being used to explore some aspect of the animal's stereotypical character: cruelty, vanity etc. and explain how its features were occasioned. Rather enjoyed this.