This delightful collection of charmingly told animal stories started out as bedtime reading for the author's grandchildren, some ideas of whom contributed to its inspiration. Here you will meet such characters as a little duck who refuses to fly south for the winter with the other ducks because he wants to be independent, Jasper the scaredy-cat who is afraid of everything until he meets little Calico, and a field mouse who constantly exaggerates and never really listens, with unexpectedly dangerous consequences for her family. Interspersed with the stories are funny poems and questions to make you think. Although the animals are frankly humanised, the author's voice is never condescending but supremely natural. Principles to enable a child to cope with life's challenges are communicated in an imaginative and sensitive manner.