Few people have ever seen the elusive Philippine mouse-deer in the wild. But chances are, if you’re old enough to read this paragraph, then you might have read or even more likely had a parent read to you, the Adarna House adventures of Pilandok the mouse-deer as a child. The mischievous hero used guile and trickery to run circles around his opponents. In one story, he deceives a murderous sultan using a supposedly golden egg. In another, he outsmarts a greedy datu by luring him into a cage at sea.

For many kids in today’s heavily urbanized world, nature is something that often begins in the imagination. Read and reread in bedrooms and classrooms far from the jungle, the stories of Pilandok, Diwa the Dugong, Mayumi the Forest Pig, and Macky, ang Maliksing Paniki, serve as important avenues for children eager to explore the wilderness of the mind.

Still, it would be [READ]