Roald Dahl, that master of wicked humor, has created a ghastly menagerie of dirty beasts—all doing the most extraordinary and unmentionable things, in irrelevant and absurdly comic verse! "No animal is half so vile, as Crocky-Wock the crocodile. On Saturdays he likes to crunch Six juicy children for his lunch, and he especially enjoys Just three of each, three girls, three boys." Dahl once again lets his inimitable style and humor shine in this collection of poems about mischievous and mysterious animals. From Stingaling the Scorpion to Crocky-Wock the Crocodile, Dahl's animals are nothing short of ridiculous! A clever pig with an unmentionable plan to save his own bacon and an anteater with an unusually large appetite are among the characters created by Dahl in these timeless rhymes. Roald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories. These delightful tales have often been turned into hit films or television episodes, and even today, Roald Dahl's stories continue to make millions of readers rejoice with his brilliant prose. Story List:
- The Pig
- The Crocodile
- The Lion
- The Scorpion
- The Ant-Eater
- The Porcupine
- The Cow
- The Toad and the Snail
Author
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors. Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $900, and propelled him into a career as a writer. Its title was inspired by a highly inaccurate and sensationalized article about the crash that blinded him, which claimed he had been shot down instead of simply having to land because of low fuel. His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. Many were originally written for American magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker, then subsequently collected by Dahl into anthologies, gaining world-wide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories and they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His stories also brought him three Edgar Awards: in 1954, for the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, for the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, for the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".
