"Quite wild animals"

"Quite wild animals" by Beatrice Curtis Brown is a children’s picture-book of whimsical character sketches written in the early 20th century. It playfully profiles imaginary creatures in short vignettes and verses, using gentle humor to explore manners, vanity, laziness, bravery, and other everyday foibles.

In a series of brisk portraits, the narrator introduces Growp, a cross “birst” who lives alone and scares visitors; Doolyboo, the best-mannered darling of everyone; Bawgum, a blustering softy with a playful tail and ponderous words; and Queek, so lazy he has sat for years outside the house he never finished. Gorrible, weighed down by colossal feet, earns a medal by rescuing Doolyboo; the balloon-like Bolla survives on feathers and is forever blown away, even from his own wedding; the lofty, proud Golophos lives in a three-walled house; and the hyphen-loving Squilly-wiggle can’t keep his legs from carrying him off course. We also meet Sloot, a sly sneak angling for respectability; Blumpleby, filthy and greedy, who eats newspapers; Skoonk, too squeaky to speak so he writes letters; Pufftuffin, a warm, fuzzy comfort who grew knock-kneed legs with the wrong pills; Skutch, a tall, shy would-be coat-of-arms with ornamental hands; Spinicum, who lost one of his two side-tails and forever searches for it; and Shimmyhonk, a vain music teacher who performs at every concert. Together these comic mini-biographies form a light, satirical bestiary of odd diets, peculiar homes, and gently mocked quirks.