| The Bad Child's Book of Beasts | |
| Author: | Hilaire Belloc |
| Illustrator: | Basil Temple Blackwood |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Children's literature |
| Publisher: | The Camelot Press Limited |
| Release Date: | 1896 |
| Followed By: | More Beasts for Worse Children |
| Wikisource: | The Bad Child's Book of Beasts |
The Bad Child's Book of Beasts is an 1896 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc.[1] [2] [3] Illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood, the superficially naive verses give tongue-in-cheek advice to children. In the book, the animals tend to be sage-like, and the humans dull and self-satisfied.[4] Within the first three months of its publication, The Bad Child's Book of Beasts sold 4,000 copies.[5]
Lord Alfred Douglas accused Belloc of plagiarizing his work Tales with a Twist, which, although published two years after The Bad Child's Book of Beasts, was, according to Douglas, written before Belloc's work.[6]
Belloc's friend Donald Tovey had composed musical settings of some of the verses by 1899 and played them in public.[7] In 1911 Belloc expressed an interest in seeing them published. However, Tovey never got around to producing a final score, and the settings are now lost.[8]
The illustrations have also drawn comparison to the works seen in Dr. Seuss books.[9]
The DodoThe Dodo used to walk around,
And take the sun and air.
The sun yet warms his native ground –
The Dodo is not there!
The voice which used to squawk and squeak
Is now for ever dumb –
Yet may you see his bones and beak
All in the Mu-se-um.