Last weekend, I attended a wonderful workshop on learning communities. During the workshop, our school librarian and I began talking books. She told us how she loves the way students react to books. One of her favourites is sharing the story TheWorld's Greatest Elephant by Ralph Helfer.
The next day, I came across The Beauty of the Beasts: Tales of Hollywood's Wild Animal Stars by the same author.
You know every time you watch an MGM movie, and the lion roars at the beginning? Well that's one of Ralph's animals!
This is an easy read. It's full of stories of different animals he's trained. He was taught to train with a whip, and after a few too many attacks, decided to train with affection. The book shares stories from both methods. It shares stories that display his love for the animals. It is not a how-to-guide! In fact, he often states how difficult it is to train animals, and does not advise others to keep wild animals as pets.
I really enjoyed this read. I laughed, giggled, cringed and even cried!
1 comment:
That sounds like a great book! I will see if my library has it!
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