Book: How The Leopard Got His Spots
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Hard Cover
Ages: 4- 8 years
Rudyard Kipling doesn’t need any introduction. The famous poet and writer has written many wonderful short stories. I accidentally came across this book How the Leopard got his spots just surfing on the internet. The name of the book sounded so familiar. A book by the famous author was definitely worthy of collecting.
The main reason why I got this book was because of my five year old’s interest in the big cat family. He loved jaguars, lions, leopards and tigers. It was their majestic features, strength and speed that drew his young attention.
The story is more of a graphic novel. So the format is like a comic book. There are sequences of events and illustrations with dialogues. The story begins with a factual description of the plane leopard – where he lives and what he eats.
Then the story begins. A hunter and the leopard go hunting for their prey – a giraffe, zebra and kudu (Ehtiopian animal). The prey escape and take refuge in a colorful forest where magically they get spots, stripes and marks. Meanwhile, the hunter and the leopard are desperate to find their prey. On seeking advice from a wise monkey, they too go to the forest and are advised ‘to change.’ The hunter puts on a dark shade to blend in and puts spots on the leopard too. And so the prey and the hunter are camouflaged and continue their chase.
To add to the learning element I asked my son “What other animals do you know can camouflage on their own?” The young one jumped and shouted “Chameleon.”
This book was one of the first graphic books me and my son have read together. The other one was The Iliad by Homer. Changing the format also makes reading more interesting. It adds more variety and break boredom. My five year old son really enjoyed this book and now believes that this is how one of his favorite animals got his spots. I recommend this book for five years and above till ten years.
Other books written by Rudyard Kipling are The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous.
If you liked this review and would like to buy this book from Amazon,
CLICK & BUY NOW! Buy Paperback!
