The wonders of the forest beckon to an adventurous tiger cub. As she ventures deep into the wilderness, you’ll meet fascinating inhabitants of the jungle, from a stealthy leopard to a hornbill nestled high up in a fig tree. Look closely, and you may spot a mighty elephant behind a bamboo thicket. Hear the alarm call of a sambar deer? If you don’t keep still, it may race far, far away! Hanging upside down from the roof of a cave is a cauldron of bats, and soon arrives a ferocious shaggy creature, waving its sharp claws. Under the rustling leaves on the forest floor, tucked away in the alcoves of a termite castle, and amidst the great roots of a banyan tree, astonishing mysteries of the jungle await discovery. The creation of a masterful storyteller whose knowledge of India’s flora and fauna is unparalleled, If You Were a Tiger Cub shows curious young readers the magnificent beauty of the natural world through the eyes of one of its most majestic creatures.
Stephen Alter is the author of more than twenty books of fiction and non-fiction. Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth, a work of non-fiction, received the 2020 Banff Mountain Book Award in the Mountain Environment and Natural History category. His memoir, Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime, received the Kekoo Naoroji Award for Himalayan Literature. In the Jungles of the Night: A Novel about Jim Corbett was shortlisted for the DSC South Asian Literature Award. His latest work includes Death in Shambles and Birdwatching: A Novel which won the 2023 Green Lit Fest Book of the Year. Alter has taught at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, where he was director of the writing program for seven years. Following this, he was writer-in-residence at MIT for ten years. Among the honours he has received are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the East West Centre in Hawaii, and the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture. He is also the founding director of the Mussoorie Mountain Festival.
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