…Can adults do the same? This is one of my favorite children’s books. I believe adults could benefit from reading this book. Many adults have forgotten how to get along with others they disagree with because “they only see it their way.”
A tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Robertson is a book that that teaches children about different perspectives. It is broken into two chapters. The first one tells the story from the perspective of the girl, who when walking home through the “deep dark woods,” spies a strange little beast and “rescues” him. She takes him him, wraps him in a scarf, gives him a bath, and shows him to her friends but despite all her good care, he runs away. Chapter two tells the same story but this time from the “strange beast’s” perspective. He tells us how he was swinging happily on a branch when all of a sudden he is “ambushed by a terrible beast” who ties him up, carries him to her secret lair, makes him disgustingly clean, and shows him off to a “herd of even wilder beasts. Each of the two stories close with either the girl or the animal realizing that perhaps the other person isn’t such a terrible beast after all and that perhaps they misread each other.
About the Author
Fiona Roberton was born in Oxford and studied art and design in London and New York. She has lived and worked all over the world and is currently based in London. Fiona’s debut picture book Cuckoo won the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. She is the creator of the bestselling “A Tale of Two Beasts”, which has sold over 220,000 copies around the world.