The Elephants' Tale and Other Fabulous Fables have been written over a number of years, waiting to be released from theirfolders and fi nally become a book. Some were written for my grandchildren and others just for fun. The spider poem came to me as I hung out an upstairs window and saw a carefree spider floating by on its silky line while my five children crashed about downstairs. "How the Moon Got into the Sky" was written for my daughter as her three children crashed about in her house. The cat poems are due to the two fat cats who inhabit and occasionally crash about my house. The other stories may also seem a little unbelievable, but I believe in them-after all, who are we to say that elephants and beetles and even the sun and the moon don't have their stories to tell too.