How the Snake Lost Its Legs the leopard/elephant/camel got its spots/trunk/hump". Held's ability to captivate the reader's imagination compares to the mischievousness of Kipling's pourquoi stories," but the reader, "is also encouraged to extrapolate from general principles by the constant reminder that animals use a conserved set of developmental genes to construct their bodies." Martin finds evo-devo fascinating, "inherently colorful and well placed to fulfill the dual goal of etiological myths: explaining origins and causes while also stirring imagination and awe. Overall, the latest opus by Lewis Held Jr. fits that niche nicely, and shines by its ability to span essential concepts and empirical work with
Kpo the Leopard Kpo the Leopard Kpo the Leopard is an African wildlife story about a female leopard-cub written by French children's writer René Guillot (1900–1969), who lived, worked and travelled for much of his life in French Africa. 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. "Kpo the Leopard" was published in 1955 and, twenty years later, was included in "The Hamish Hamilton Book of Wise Animals", together with pieces