Tooth & Claw

Emma Wang

I read Tooth and Claw. There are five stories about animals and people in this book, and the author is SAKI. I started reading those stories on the evening at the 27th of November and I finished reading this book on the evening at the 29th of November.

In the first story, the main person is a boy Conradin, and he is ten years old and he lives with his aunt. His aunt doesn’t like Conradin, so she was often unkind to him. Conradin hates his aunt and he found a secret place. In this place, Conradin has a ferret. One day, Conradin’s aunt found this secret place and tried to kill Conradin’s ferret — because she doesn’t like Conradin having anything to like. But at last, the ferret killed Conradin’s aunt.
In the second story, the main people are three children and a tall man. The tall man told a story to the three children and this story is about a very good girl, Bertha. Bertha was so good that she was 'horribly good.' Because she was very good the king invited her to his gardens and in the king’s gardens there was a lot of pigs. Bertha was very happy to walk in the king’s gardens, but at the same time to the king’s gardens was coming a wolf. At last the wolf ate Bertha.
In the third story, the main people are Van Cheele and a wolfman. Van has a small garden and one day he found a young man in his garden. At first Van wasn’t minding this man, but after this his friend told him that the young man is a wolfman. At last the wolfman ate a child on the way between his garden and that child’s home.
In the fourth story, the main animal is Tobermory, a clever cat and she can speak English very well so she can understand a lot of people’s secrets. And then a lot of people know this secret and everyone wants to kill it. At last she died because she fights with another cat and she was lost.
The last story is about a woman and a wolf. I don’t understand this story very well, maybe it is about a man and he can make some magic.

I think the English level of this book is about right and I think the stories are telling me that 'animals have cruelty.' I didn’t find the best point in this book. I don’t like this book because it’s complex and it was difficult to understand its meaning.