Jump to content

Kpo the Leopard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First English-languade edition
(publ. Oxford University Press, 1955)

Kpo the Leopard (original French title: Kpo la panthère) is an African wildlife story about a female leopard cub written by the French children's writer René Guillot[1] (1900–1969), who lived, worked and travelled for much of his life in French Africa.[2]

Set initially in the African jungle, the story moves, after Kpo and her mother escape from a forest fire, to new hunting-grounds in the African Plain, and tells the story of Kpo's adventures as she matures into a full-grown leopard.[1]

Kpo the Leopard was published in 1955[1] and, twenty years later, was included in The Hamish Hamilton Book of Wise Animals,[2] together with pieces featuring "fabulous animals" such as Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, E. Nesbit's Psammead, T. S. Eliot's Mr. Mistoffelees, and Rollicum Bitem the Fox by John Masefield.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c René Guillot, Kpo the Leopard illustrated by Joan Kiddell-Monroe, translated by Gwen Marsh (OUP, Oxford Children's Library 1955 ~ 160pp.)
  2. ^ a b c Eilis Dillon (editor), The Hamish Hamilton Book of Wise Animals, illustrated by Bernard Brett (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1975. ISBN 0-241-02156-1)