Dive into the enchanting world of "Animal Stories from a British Forest," a delightful collection of heartwarming tales that will captivate young readers and adults alike. Follow the charming creatures that inhabit the lush forest as they navigate friendship, courage, and the beauty of nature. With whimsical prose and captivating storytelling, this book is sure to spark imagination and leave a lasting impression. Join these lovable characters on their adventures through the British forest and discover the magic that surrounds us all.

This book coins the term ‘imperial beast fable’ to explore modern forms of human-animal relationships and their origins in the British Empire. Taking as a starting point the long nineteenth-century fascination with non-European beast fables, it examines literary reworkings of these fables, such as Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books, in relation to the global politics of race, language, and species. The imperial beast fable figures variably as a key site where the nature and origins of mankind are hotly debated; an emerging space of conservation in which humans enclose animals to manage and control them; a cage in which an animal narrator talks to change its human jailors; and a vision of animal cosmopolitanism, in which a close kinship between humans and other animals is dreamt of. Written at the intersection of animal studies and postcolonial studies, this book proposes that the beast fable embodies the ideologies and values of the British Empire, while also covertly critiquing them. It therefore finds in the beast fable the possibility that the multitudinous animals it gives voice to might challenge the imperial networks which threaten their existence, both in the nineteenth century and today.

Herein are 63 illustrated true stories about animals which every child will enjoy! In this book you will find stories about bears, otters, eagles, horses, dogs, dolphins, ants, frogs, elephants, parrots, snakes, lions, Cayman, weasels and many, many more besides. "The Animal Story Book" will delight both old and young, as one may find therein pen-portraits of most of the remarkable animals that have interested the world since primitive times. Herein are stories like: Saï The Panther The Buzzard And The Priest A Rat’s Tale The Dog Of Montargis The Taming of an Otter The Adventures Of Pyramus The Dancing Dog Monkey Stories The War Horse Of Alexander Madame Théophile And The Parrot plus many, many more. The 66 pen and ink illustrations by H J Ford give added life to the stories. Unlike his fairy collections, these tales compiled by Andrew Lang are all "true" with some species descriptions coming from nature journals of the time and others being more personal memoir/anecdote type stories of individual's pets. Not as well known today, was that the author Alexandre Dumas maintained a veritable menagerie, as did the artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, and Andrew Lang has featured many stories about the various animals in their menageries. But, if anyone believes that style does not appeal to the young readers, let him open this book and read to any intelligent child of nine years Dumas’ description of Mysouf the cat, and Pritchard the dog. ============= KEYWORDS/TAGS: Children’s stories, Childrens, Folklore, Fairy, Folk, Tales, bedtime story, legends, storyteller, fables, moral tales, myths, happiness, laughter, Animal, story book, Andrew Lang, H J Ford, H. J. Ford, Illustrated, illustrations, Tom, adventure, bear, paris, Saï, panther, buzzard, priest, Cowper, hares, rat’s tale. Tail, Snake, elephant, dog, montargis, beaver, build a house, war horse, Alexander, ants, taming, otter, Androcles, lion, Monsieur, Alexander Dumas, beasts, Pyramus, weasel, wolves, highland dogs, sally, zoo, cayman, fido, siege, Mr. Gully, pliny, history of cagnotte, Still waters, deep; dancing dog, Theo, horses: jane, betsy, blanche, Madame théophile, parrot, battle of the mullets, dolphins, Monkey, ship, desert, home, rather be, Nests, Fire-eating, djijam, Oscar, Dolphin, play, starling, segringen, Grateful, Gazelle, tortoise, Cockatoo, otter, cat, Builders, weavers, faithful, favour, turtles, cod, Bungey, jacko, Signora, lori, linnet, popinjay, Patch, chickens, fierce, falcon scotch, scots, terrier, raven, funeral, strange, tiger, Halcyons, biographer, frog, woodpecker, tapping, hollow, oak tree, water, capocier, mate, Owls, marmots, Eagle, nest

Contributions by Megan De Roover, Jennifer Harrison, Sarah Jackson, Zoe Jaques, Nada Kujundžić, Ivana Milković, Niall Nance-Carroll, Perry Nodelman, David Rudd, Jonathan Chun Ngai Tsang, Nicholas Tucker, Donna Varga, and Tim Wadham One hundred years ago, disparate events culminated in one of the most momentous happenings in the history of children’s literature. Christopher Robin Milne was born to A. A. and Dorothy “Daphne” Milne; Edward Bear, a lovable stuffed toy, arrived on the market; and a living, young bear named Winnie settled in at the London Zoo. The collaboration originally begun by the Milnes, E. H. and Florence Shepard, Winnie herself, and the many toys and personalities who fed into the Pooh legend continued to evolve throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to become a global phenomenon. Yet even a brief examination of this sensation reveals that Pooh and his adventures were from the onset marked by a rich complexity behind a seeming simplicity and innocence. This volume, after a decades-long lull in concentrated Pooh scholarship, seeks to highlight the plurality of perspectives, modes, and interpretations these tales afford, especially after the Disney Corporation scooped its paws into the honeypot in the 1950s. Positioning Pooh: Edward Bear after One Hundred Years argues the doings of Pooh remain relevant for readers in a posthuman, information-centric, media-saturated, globalized age. Pooh's forays destabilize social certainties on all levels—linguistic, ontological, legal, narrative, political, and so on. Through essays that focus on geography, language, narrative, characterization, history, politics, economics, and a host of other social and cultural phenomena, contributors to this volume explore how the stories open up discourses about identity, ethics, social relations, and notions of belonging. This first volume to offer multiple perspectives from multiple authors on the Winnie-the-Pooh books in a single collection focuses on and develops approaches that bring this classic of children’s literature into the current era. Essays included not only are of relevance to scholars with an interest in Pooh, Milne, and the “golden age” of children’s literature, but also showcase the development of children’s literature scholarship in step with exciting modern developments in literary theory.

A fascinating, richly illustrated exploration of the poignant origins of Rudyard Kipling’s world-famous children’s classic From "How the Leopard Got Its Spots" to "The Elephant’s Child," Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories have delighted readers across the world for more than a century. In this original study, John Batchelor explores the artistry with which Kipling created the Just So Stories, using each tale as an entry point into the writer’s life and work—including the tragedy that shadows much of the volume, the death of his daughter Josephine. Batchelor details the playful challenges the stories made to contemporary society. In his stories Kipling played with biblical and other stories of creation and imagined fantastical tales of animals' development and man's discovery of literacy. Richly illustrated with original drawings and family photographs, this account reveals Kipling’s public and private lives—and sheds new light on a much-loved and tremendously influential classic.