NEVER PULL A LION’S TAIL
A Collection of Poetry and Photographs
Barry J. Freeman
ISBN: 1-904722-24-5
 
This is a book of poems with a sense of humour. The poems are about the animals of Africa, and they are accompanied by photographs taken by the author and some of Africa’s most eminent photographers. In most of the poems the animals are given a human persona and described in the context of both the animal and the human condition. Children will enjoy the poems at the animal level – the characters are familiar and entertaining. Adults will enjoy the human level, because they will identify with the situations faced by the animals and the social commentary worked into those situations. This is a book that parent and child can read together and which is both educational and lots of fun.
 
The topics tossed around from poem to poem are easily identifiable, and timeless. The rhyming schemes and metre are varied and compelling, and although it is not easy to express ideas in poetry without taking generous liberties via poetic licence, you will find none in this collection. Hopefully, even the super sophisticated reader will forgive the author’s failure to use pretentious vocabularly and abstract allusions. In short, as the expression goes, it’s a good read.