Ferocious Wild Beasts! Read online

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © by Chris Wormell

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, Penguin Random House Companies.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the web! randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Wormell, Christopher.

  Ferocious wild beasts! / ChrisWormell — 1st American ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: When a boy wanders into the forest where he has been warned about the dangerous wild animals, he encounters nothing of the sort.

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-98258-2 — ISBN: 978-0-375-86091-1 (trade) — ISBN: 978-0-375-96091-8 (lib. bdg.)

  [1. Animals—Fiction. 2. Humorous stories.] I. Title.

  PZ7.W88773Fe 2009

  [E]—dc22

  2008036373

  The illustrations in this book were created using water color.

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2009 by Chris Wormell

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  For Tristan, Rhys and Stefan

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  First Page

  About the Author

  A bear was strolling in the forest one day …

  When he met a small boy, sitting on a tree stump, looking rather sad.

  “What’s the matter?” asked the bear.

  “I’m lost,” sniffed the boy, “and I’m in terrible trouble.”

  “Dear me, why’s that?” inquired the bear.

  “Because my mom said I must never go into the forest,” replied the boy, “but I did. And now I’m lost!”

  “Don’t worry!” said the bear with a laugh. “I’ll soon show you the way out. The forest isn’t so bad, you know.”

  “It is!” declared the boy. “My mom says the forest is full of ferocious wild beasts!”

  “Really?” said the bear. “Is it? What are they like?”

  “They’re all hairy,” replied the boy. “And they hide in the shadows and then they pounce on you and gobble you up!”

  “Do they … er, do they gobble up bears too?” asked the bear, nervously.

  “Of course,” replied the boy. “They gobble up everything!” The bear peered fearfully into the shadows between the trees. “I think we’d better go,” he said.

  They had not gone far when they met an elephant having a snack.

  “Would anyone like a banana?” asked the elephant.

  “You’d better watch out, Elephant,” advised the bear. “This young man tells me there are ferocious wild beasts on the loose!”

  “Oh dear!” said the elephant, dropping his banana. “Are they very wild?”

  “The wildest beasts ever!” said the boy. “They’re SO big they could step on you and squish you just like that!”

  “But, er … they couldn’t squish an elephant, could they?” asked the elephant.

  “Easily!” replied the boy.

  “Oh crumbs!” gulped the elephant. “You don’t mind if I tag along with you, do you?”

  And soon all three were creeping through the forest.

  Before long they met a lion sunbathing on a rock.

  “Sit down and enjoy the sun!” said the lion with a flick of his tail.

  “Not likely!” replied the bear. “Don’t you know there are ferocious wild beasts about?”

  “Are there?” gulped the lion. “How ferocious?”

  “The most ferocious type of all,” declared the boy. “And they have sharp claws and big teeth and can bite your head off in a second!”

  “Yikes!” yelped the lion. “But they couldn’t do that to a lion, could they?”

  “I think they like eating lions the best,” replied the boy.

  “Oh help!” whimpered the lion, his mane all standing on end.

  “You wouldn’t mind if I came along with you, would you?”

  So off they went, tiptoeing through the forest.

  And soon they met a crocodile . . .

  and a wolf . . .

  and a python.

  Now the sun was sinking.

  “The night-time is when the ferocious wild beasts come out to hunt,” said the boy.

  Just then they heard a sound …

  like the sound of a terrible beast stomping through the undergrowth.

  Then they saw a light flickering through the tree trunks like a great glowing eye . . .

  And then they heard a wild roar echoing through the forest . . .

  And they all ran for their lives!

  Well, except for the small boy, who was the bravest. He crept forward and saw that it wasn’t a ferocious wild beast at all—

  it was something much worse. . . .

  It was a ferocious wild mom!

  “Jack! Jack!” she roared.

  “Where are you, you naughty boy?”

  “There you are,” she sighed. “Didn’t I tell you never to go into the forest? Didn’t I tell you about all the ferocious wild beasts?”

  “But, mom,” Jack protested, “I didn’t see any ferocious wild beasts.”

  Chris Wormell

  is the author illustrator of The Big Ugly Monster and the Little Stone Rabbit; Teeth, & Tentacles, a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year; and George and the Dragon, a Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s Best Book of the Year. He lives with his wife and children in London.

 

 

  Chris Wormell, Ferocious Wild Beasts!

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