Long Long Ago

Teya Rosenberg is an assistant professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at Southwest Texas State University.

Long, Long Ago is a collection of fables in the tradition of Kipling’s
Just So Stories. Personified animals in a time before human time,
through their adventures and attempts to better themselves, gain the
traits that define them today. Why the ostrich is flightless, why the
bullfrog swells itself up and bellows all night long, why the donkey’s
bray breaks in the middle are some of the questions answered in these
seven tales. The animals represent a good mix of the exotic (ostrich,
crocodile, nightingale) and the familiar (bullfrog, magpie, cat). The
stories and illustrations are predictable but entertaining and often
humorous. Recommended.