The Bad Child's Book of Beasts

The Bad Child's Book of Beasts is an 1896 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc.[1][2][3] Illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood, the superficially naive verses give tongue-in-cheek advice to children. In the book, the animals tend to be sage-like, and the humans dull and self-satisfied.[4] Within the first three months of its publication, The Bad Child's Book of Beasts sold 4,000 copies.[5]

Lord Alfred Douglas accused Belloc of plagiarizing his work Tales with a Twist, which, although published two years after The Bad Child's Book of Beasts, was, according to Douglas, written before Belloc's work.[6]

The illustrations have also drawn comparison to the works seen in Dr. Seuss books.