Of Tea Parties and Travels with Naturalists – As I play catch-up with the alphabet days of April (please read my note to my readers here), trying to keep up with the Blogging from A to Z Challenge – April 2018 and the Ultimate Blog Challenge – April 2018, here are short updates for the letters E through G for you to enjoy and (re)discover the books for these letters and what lies within them!
E is for Evolution of Calpurnia Tate – Within this book, I discovered quite a few facts that Calpurnia learns on her own and with her grandfather’s help. What advantage did those new yellow grasshoppers she saw (which were lots in number suddenly that summer) have over those dainty green ones? She pondered over that one and realized how easy it was for the yellow ones to hide in the summer dried landscape while the green ones were calling out to be eaten. There are tons more and I am away from the book so will stop at that fact and instead mention a sentence from my earlier post about the book – I definitely found out about Isabella Bird, Mary Anning, Sofia Kovalevskaya among other women scientists I had not known of before, discovered more of the natural world, had to check who or what was the esquimax, and so much more).
And Extra, Extra, for the Short Story Reading Challenge – Deal Me In 2018, here is my pick for the last week and my list of selected reading can be found here.Week 14 Deal Me In
The Card: 10 of Hearts
The Selection: ‘How the Leopard Got His Spots‘ by Rudyard Kipling
by Rudyard Kipling (Author), Lori Lohstoeter (Illustrator)
In the yellow hues of the African plains, hunting was easy for the leopard, whose light coat served as camouflage. When all the animals moved away, the hungry leopard had to follow them to the striped, splotchy, spotted forest. But he didn’t stand a chance of survival unless, of course, he acquired spots himself. Rich in language and subtle humor, this inspired adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic comes alive with richly drawn illustrations by Lori Lohstoeter. Part of the award-winning Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics series. Ages 5 and up. DVD and CD versions of the same story are narrated by Danny Glover with original score by Ladysmith Black Mambazo featuring the gentle sounds of South African a cappella harmonies. Both available on Amazon.com (Disc on Demand and Audible.com)
My Thoughts: So ideal for a play; Kipling’s saying of this tale is simply beautiful – fun to read the interactions between the characters and so wonderful to read aloud. I enjoyed reading the full version of the tale in Kipling’s humor rich language online and also read a comic version earlier, which is amazing as well. That one is an illustrated edition of Just So Stories and you can read more about it here.
To Sum it Up: Spotless! And you can hear a version here.
I remember reading Gulliver’s Travels years ago! I think it was a requirement for school. And I recall the story How the Leopard Got His Spots.
To answer your question, I am not sure I would want to live in a land where I was literally a giant among men. There is a recent movie that is out where it was just the opposite – people would shrink down to help their money go further! I have not yet seen it, but it looks interesting.
Thank you Paul.. I know that movie – Downsized is the name I think and I know it does look interesting and I think I will watch it when I get the chance too..
I bet I would have loved the tea party book growing up! I have several tea books that were written for grown-ups. 🙂
🙂 my dd and her friends sure did have fun.. and she is hoping to have another soon..now a tween tea party though
Looks like you have caught up on your A to Z challenge Vidya! How I remember reading Gulliver’s Travels in my school days!
Thank you Martha.. yes caught up here,, 🙂
I have a volume of Kipling’s stories on my bookshelf and have read several in the past. My all-time favorite is “The Brushwood Boy” which I first read as part of another, multi-author anthology. It’s even in my top ten short stories by ANY author. I wrote about it once at https://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/1722/ but that post has spoilers. (It also has a link to where the story may be read online before you get to the “spoilery-part” if you want to read at some point.
Thank you Jay!! I have not read ‘The Brushwood Boy’ and will check it out (as well as your post, and thanks for the comment on the spoilers!)