About book How The Whale Became And Other Stories (2000)
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 other birds wised up and now every morning when they awake, they remember owl’s nasty trick and chase him into a hole.God, as creator, features in some of the stories. He found a whale-wort growing in His garden but as it refused to stop growing and flattened God’s house, whale-wort was pushed into the sea where he shrinks when blowing and grows again when sleeping; and thus is not allowed back in God’s garden. Ted Hughes shows a great sense of humour and good imagination in telling these stories. They would appeal as bedtime stories for five to ten year olds and the adult reader would chuckle too.As a teacher, I am not sure the book would have enough appeal to be chosen off the shelf by a child. While the cover is bright, the inside lacks colour and is sparsely illustrated. However it is a great read-aloud and I would use it to stimulate children’s imaginations to write their own how/why animal stories.
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