Claws and Jaws: 30 New Zealand Animal Stories

by Barbara Else (Editor), Philip Webb (Illustrator)

A possum in the chimney . . . a bird's nest in Ruby's hair . . . a rat bridegroom in a pin-striped suit . . . a giant-weta detective in the bush . . . 30 animal stories in this book!
These New Zealand writers will maky you laugh, cry and think, and tempt your imagination with their tales about claws or jaws, fins or feathers, fur or fangs.

155 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2004

About the author

Barbara Else is a playwright and fiction writer, and has also worked as a literary agent, editor and fiction consultant. Else won the Victoria University Writer’s Fellowship in 1999, and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in 2005.

Reviews

[Rowena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this as a read-aloud for our Year 3/4 class at a New Zealand rural school. I chose the funny stories about interactions with bush animals rather than domestic ones, e.g. The Korimako Kid and A Tail In The Chimney.
I read these during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were perfect as individual stories read (and to be listened to) in one sitting, rather than a chapter book where the children might miss one and therefore not be able to follow the story so well.