Pecking Orders by Athol Desmond - Now Available

Oct. 17, 2011 - PRLog -- I lived on a smallholding in the entrancing KwaZulu-Natal countryside and spent most of my waking hours listening to recorded music and playing my piano. A Pin-tailed Whydah regularly attended my little recitals. He perched on the back of a garden chair outside and showed every sign of enjoying the music. Schumann and Granados seemed to hold him spellbound and I'll swear that the sublimity of Johann Sebastian Bach induced a trance-like condition; he'd nod and bob and raise and lower his beautiful foot-long tail. But he'd show displeasure if he had to listen to Erik Satie's exotic harmonies: fluttering, bouncing and fanning his wings at incredible speed. Curiously, he never came on Saturdays. It took quite a while to find out why. I discovered that the children of my neighbours, the Ndlovus and the Macdonalds, were taking instructions from a magical little bird! Pecking Orders? They were being introduced to vital, inborn life skills and were being shown how best to use them.

My grandson, Darius Desmond, is a professional artist. Darius read a draft of the book and immediately came up with his inspired drawings. (He recalled similar experiences he'd enjoyed with a family of Lilac-Breasted Rollers when he was younger.) I think Whirryam would be flattered!

Although this is a book for children of all ages, it does require a degree of reading proficiency. For some, it may be considered as a book to be read to children - by teachers and concerned parents - rather than by them.

Go to www.peckingorders.com and read how to spice up and use the Pecking Order discourses creatively. Your welcome comments and ideas will add to the wealth of free material.

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Raider Publishing International is a publishing company based in New York City, London and Cape Town. With authors in over seventy different countries worldwide, Raider Publishing International is an award winning organization that has published bestsellers on four different continents. For more information about Pecking Orders, Athol Desmond, or Raider Publishing International, please contact the address below. The author and publisher are available for interviews and a free review copy of Pecking Orders is available to all members of the accredited media.