How The Leopard Got His Spots

Shoo Rayner is the author and illustrator of many well-loved books, including THE GINGER NINJA and RICKY ROCKET series.

The best thing about this book-and-recording package is the evocative Ladysmith Black Mambazo vocal group providing background on the cassette. Nothing else quite measures up. The narrator's low and sibilant reading is sometimes effective but often difficult to understand unless you are reading along. The chief feature of the sinuous, wildly colored fauvist illustrations is the remarkably unattractive figure of the Ethiopian, who appears to be a victim of advanced elephantiasis, bloating his torso and lower limbs. The eponymous leopard looks rather more like a dog (like Lassie, in fact, in the opening spread) than a cat. Color cues explicitly supplied by Kipling are disregarded ("chestnut blotches" become Chinese red, pink, and white; "black spots" are entirely red and lilac). Leopards, Ethiopians, and the Just-So stories deserve better. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.