More Beasts (For Worse Children)

This lively collection of comic verses presents the animal kingdom as a place of alarming facts, questionable advice, and wonderfully confident nonsense. A “learned child” appears to know more than his bookish parents, offering explanations for everything from a tailless guinea-pig to the Wanderoo’s strange rhymes. Each creature receives its own miniature lesson, delivered with playful rhyme and a mischievous eye for the absurd.

Listeners will encounter pythons with measles, porcupines that must never be slapped, crocodiles hidden in breakfast eggs, and vultures whose unhealthy habits teach a lesson about snacking. Other poems turn bison, llamas, chamois, vipers, and even a frozen mammoth into subjects for outrageous natural history. The verses are brisk, witty, and delightfully deadpan, making this an entertaining choice for children—and for grown-ups who enjoy clever wordplay, mock seriousness, and zoological advice that should absolutely not be followed.