Kali's father is a snake catcher - the best in the village. Kali knows that is really something to be proud of, but at school he sometimes gets embarrassed. The other children seem to think there is something very strange about having a snake catcher for a father and eating things like fried termites for a snack. Plus, Kali is the teacher's pet. How will he ever make friends?

Kali hates school. The other children think he's strange, for his father is a snake catcher from Irula tribe. A sensitive story with evocative watercolour pictures.

In India, Kali is an outsider at his school until catching a snake makes him a hero.

The forests of India are not only home to a wide variety of animals and birds, but they also teem with committed conservationists, naturalists and nature lovers. And after having spent many years with wildlife, these men and women have fascinating stories to tell. Cliff Rice is one such animal-explorer. He lived for two years in the mountains of Kerala, befriending the Nilgiri tahr, an endangered species of mountain goat, with fistfuls of salt. Ralph Morris, one of the first British coffee planters in the Biligirirangan Hills, went on a 'tiger beat' and chased a pair of tigers towards his daughter Monica , who was given little pebbles to throw at them if defence became necessary. Sally Walker spent years with tiger cubs in zoos, and proved that kindness is more effective than fierce authority; Rom Whitaker set off on an international hunt for giant crocodiles, which took him from Orissa to Egypt; and Manish Chandi tells a fascinating tale about Meroe, the rumbling Nicobar island, where he studied sea turtles and other wildlife.

Meet Pooch, the mongoose along with scorpions, crabs, centipedes and other insects and reptiles in the pages of this charming little book as they talk about their habits and eccentricities - in verse! Did you know that the cobra cannot hear, and 'dances' because it is following the movements of the snake charmer's flute? That the hermit crab does not have a shell of its own and has to go about looking for one that fits? And what, exactly, does the cockroach feel when you flee screaming from it? Crackling with wit, and full of fun facts, these poems by the author of the widely acclaimed "Cobra in My Kitchen", are a must read for poetry and nature lovers alike. Show More Show Less

Presents the further adventures of Mowgli, a boy reared by a pack of wolves, and the wild animals of the jungle. Also includes other short stories set in India.